International Women's Day is an annual event on March 8 to celebrate the improving inclusion and participation of women in society and also acts as a call to action to further empower females. Read the stories of three women working in the tourism industry and how they #EmbraceEquity.
In tourism, women represent the largest share of the workforce, but are often in the lowest paid roles. How can we as an industry help to support women working in the sector? This opinion piece tells the story of three women striving to boost female empowerment in tourism in different tourism sectors, including hotel management, cultural tourism and adventure tourism:
International Women's Day is an annual event on March 8 to celebrate the improving inclusion and participation of women in society and also acts as a call to action to further empower females.
In 2023, the theme is #EmbraceEquity. It's about going beyond just equality, where everyone gets access to the same resources and opportunities, and obtaining equity to recognise the specific circumstances faced by different demographics.
Lisbeth is passionate about helping people to find themselves and better understand their desires and to make informed choices. She wants to facilitate skills development and encourage people to take responsibility. She aims to motivate employees to use these acquired skills to work towards shared goals. She enjoys networking and listening carefully to other people's opinions to create a trusting atmosphere.
Lisbeth is proud to see four generations represented in the workplace, with gender being irrelevant to the hiring process for the hotel. Equity is embraced regardless of gender and everyone is given a chance to express their thoughts openly in a friendly environment.
For Lisbeth, ensuring equity is not considered as being a specific project, but rather a philosophy for managing the business to ensure that the composition of staff represents both genders across many generations. She has worked very purposefully to get young people into part-time jobs in order to introduce them to working life. This has been a long process, but is starting to see success, with the hotel being considered as a place where people want to work, not just a place offering jobs.
Julia watched her first noh play when she was thirteen and has been an amateur practitioner of noh theatre for over 25 years. Julia currently organises and leads workshops and tours to introduce noh through multicultural perspectives by exploring places and people related to the rich traditions of Japanese performing arts in Kyoto. Noh is a traditional Japanese dance-drama focused on supernatural beings turning into human form, which has been acted out since the 14th century.
Julia highlights how she has not faced gender bias in her career. With two of the three senior directors being women, Discover Noh is well-placed to understand the needs of females within the travel industry. They are also a culturally and ethnically diverse organisation.
However, the stereotypical conception of gender roles is still dominant in Japan. Many people still have unconscious bias and unintentionally ignore female voices. Julia explains how she attempts to promote equity by raising attention to the issue and points out any comments or behaviour that may be misconstrued as misogynistic or that exclude female perspectives. These conversations are non-confrontational and improve equity through building empathy and helping people to understand the specific circumstances faced by women working in the industry.
Through introducing people to traditional theatre, Julia works to facilitate communication between cultures. Since Discover Noh works with classical Japanese text in their work, they often deal with ideas or phrases that are based on old ideals that go against equity. However, they introduce noh theatre from multi-cultural perspectives to international audiences. Therefore, it does sometimes pose challenges to remain authentic, while adapting to multi-cultural perspectives and the stronger representation of women. It's important to understand and respect these sensitivities to convey the aesthetics of noh theatre in modern times. To support this process of improving equity in an ancient cultural tradition, Discover Noh plan to increase opportunities to work with female noh performers, who are still few in proportion.
Nive is embracing equity as an equal partner and joint owner of Diskobay Tours. As a small business, the company ensures equity by having a 50/50 split between men and women. Everything Diskobay Tours does is without limits to either men or women, or their background. Employees are evaluated purely based on their skills, rather than their gender or other demographics. The goal is that all guides have the skills to guide all tours, regardless of their background. Nive feels a responsibility to play a strong role in training and educating younger guides and transfer knowledge down through generations, so that culture can be preserved.
Diskobay Tours won the Greenland Tourism Award 2021 due to their sustainability focus, respecting nature, but also communities. Nive is passionate about sharing Greenlandic culture and telling local stories to guests that visit the country, particularly those involving Greenlandic sled dogs. They have placed a lot of effort into developing tourism in Qasigiannguit and the Disco Bay Region, and placing locals at the heart of development. By considering community perspectives, Diskobay Tours are helping to #EmbraceEquity.
Lisbeth encourages future female leaders to surround themselves with passionate individuals and to be open to learning from anyone, regardless of gender and age. She highlights the importance of networking and making contacts both inside and outside the industry.
Julia believes that to drive equity in tourism, women shouldn't be afraid of taking a career break, especially for parenting. Don't worry about how it may be perceived by someone else. She says taking a career break or changing your career can help you to find something that best suits your passions and ambitions. As long as you do something you love, you can find an even better track for yourself!
Nive says that as a local, you should identify your own strengths and reiterates the importance of networking to make things happen. Remain resilient and keep your head up on bad days. You should continue striving towards your own personal and professional goals. It can take years before you see success, but it is achievable!
How can equity and female participation in the tourism industry be better supported - both in SMEs and large organisations? What are you doing to #EmbraceEquity in tourism?
In tourism, women represent the largest share of the workforce, but are often in the lowest paid roles. How can we as an industry help to support women working in the sector? This opinion piece tells the story of three women striving to boost female empowerment in tourism in different tourism sectors, including hotel management, cultural tourism and adventure tourism:
International Women's Day is an annual event on March 8 to celebrate the improving inclusion and participation of women in society and also acts as a call to action to further empower females.
In 2023, the theme is #EmbraceEquity. It's about going beyond just equality, where everyone gets access to the same resources and opportunities, and obtaining equity to recognise the specific circumstances faced by different demographics.
Lisbeth is passionate about helping people to find themselves and better understand their desires and to make informed choices. She wants to facilitate skills development and encourage people to take responsibility. She aims to motivate employees to use these acquired skills to work towards shared goals. She enjoys networking and listening carefully to other people's opinions to create a trusting atmosphere.
Lisbeth is proud to see four generations represented in the workplace, with gender being irrelevant to the hiring process for the hotel. Equity is embraced regardless of gender and everyone is given a chance to express their thoughts openly in a friendly environment.
For Lisbeth, ensuring equity is not considered as being a specific project, but rather a philosophy for managing the business to ensure that the composition of staff represents both genders across many generations. She has worked very purposefully to get young people into part-time jobs in order to introduce them to working life. This has been a long process, but is starting to see success, with the hotel being considered as a place where people want to work, not just a place offering jobs.
Julia watched her first noh play when she was thirteen and has been an amateur practitioner of noh theatre for over 25 years. Julia currently organises and leads workshops and tours to introduce noh through multicultural perspectives by exploring places and people related to the rich traditions of Japanese performing arts in Kyoto. Noh is a traditional Japanese dance-drama focused on supernatural beings turning into human form, which has been acted out since the 14th century.
Julia highlights how she has not faced gender bias in her career. With two of the three senior directors being women, Discover Noh is well-placed to understand the needs of females within the travel industry. They are also a culturally and ethnically diverse organisation.
However, the stereotypical conception of gender roles is still dominant in Japan. Many people still have unconscious bias and unintentionally ignore female voices. Julia explains how she attempts to promote equity by raising attention to the issue and points out any comments or behaviour that may be misconstrued as misogynistic or that exclude female perspectives. These conversations are non-confrontational and improve equity through building empathy and helping people to understand the specific circumstances faced by women working in the industry.
Through introducing people to traditional theatre, Julia works to facilitate communication between cultures. Since Discover Noh works with classical Japanese text in their work, they often deal with ideas or phrases that are based on old ideals that go against equity. However, they introduce noh theatre from multi-cultural perspectives to international audiences. Therefore, it does sometimes pose challenges to remain authentic, while adapting to multi-cultural perspectives and the stronger representation of women. It's important to understand and respect these sensitivities to convey the aesthetics of noh theatre in modern times. To support this process of improving equity in an ancient cultural tradition, Discover Noh plan to increase opportunities to work with female noh performers, who are still few in proportion.
Nive is embracing equity as an equal partner and joint owner of Diskobay Tours. As a small business, the company ensures equity by having a 50/50 split between men and women. Everything Diskobay Tours does is without limits to either men or women, or their background. Employees are evaluated purely based on their skills, rather than their gender or other demographics. The goal is that all guides have the skills to guide all tours, regardless of their background. Nive feels a responsibility to play a strong role in training and educating younger guides and transfer knowledge down through generations, so that culture can be preserved.
Diskobay Tours won the Greenland Tourism Award 2021 due to their sustainability focus, respecting nature, but also communities. Nive is passionate about sharing Greenlandic culture and telling local stories to guests that visit the country, particularly those involving Greenlandic sled dogs. They have placed a lot of effort into developing tourism in Qasigiannguit and the Disco Bay Region, and placing locals at the heart of development. By considering community perspectives, Diskobay Tours are helping to #EmbraceEquity.
Lisbeth encourages future female leaders to surround themselves with passionate individuals and to be open to learning from anyone, regardless of gender and age. She highlights the importance of networking and making contacts both inside and outside the industry.
Julia believes that to drive equity in tourism, women shouldn't be afraid of taking a career break, especially for parenting. Don't worry about how it may be perceived by someone else. She says taking a career break or changing your career can help you to find something that best suits your passions and ambitions. As long as you do something you love, you can find an even better track for yourself!
Nive says that as a local, you should identify your own strengths and reiterates the importance of networking to make things happen. Remain resilient and keep your head up on bad days. You should continue striving towards your own personal and professional goals. It can take years before you see success, but it is achievable!
How can equity and female participation in the tourism industry be better supported - both in SMEs and large organisations? What are you doing to #EmbraceEquity in tourism?
In tourism, women represent the largest share of the workforce, but are often in the lowest paid roles. How can we as an industry help to support women working in the sector? This opinion piece tells the story of three women striving to boost female empowerment in tourism in different tourism sectors, including hotel management, cultural tourism and adventure tourism.
In tourism, women represent the largest share of the workforce, but are often in the lowest paid roles. How can we as an industry help to support women working in the sector? This opinion piece tells the story of three women striving to boost female empowerment in tourism in different tourism sectors, including hotel management, cultural tourism and adventure tourism.
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