Contribution and role of women and their challenges in management positions in Muscat's

tourism and hotel sector

Abstract

Women play an important role in tourism jobs, but in low-level and precarious positions, women
are used less in management positions. This study aims to examine the role of women in
management positions in Muscat's tourism and hotel sector. Prominent female managers in the
tourism and hotel industry were interviewed and asked about the challenges facing them. In this
research, a quantitative method was used, and interviews were conducted with tourism managers
and experts. This research focuses on exploring the contributions of women in Muscat's tourism
industry. It aims to identify the challenges and opportunities faced by women in managerial roles
within the tourism and hotel sectors in Muscat. Additionally, the study examines the factors that
limit women's participation in these managerial positions. The results show that lack of
sufficient training, unwillingness to study in this specialty, lack of satisfaction of families,
and lack of acceptance of society's tradition are the most important influencing factors.
Keywords: role of women, management positions, Muscat's tourism and hotel
Introduction
According to the International Labor Organization (2024), the total number of people employed
in the field of tourism worldwide is 270 million, which accounts for 8.2% of the world's
workforce. Of this number, 46% are men and 54% are women. women have 14.7% less income
than men. In tourism, only 23% of the ministers are women. According to the report of the
Ministry of Heritage and Tourism of Oman (2024), the number of people working in tourism in
Muscat is 16,721, of which 11,963 are men and 4,785 are women. According to the surveys,
women have fewer job positions than men in managerial positions.
Perkov, Primorac & Perkov (2016) addressed the issue of how some general structural indicators
of gender inequality are in the field of tourism work. Costa, Carvalho & Breda (2011) stated that
most men have high-level job positions in tourism. In addition, especially female workers are
exposed to worse working conditions, such as low wages, long working hours, and more
precarious contracts. According to available evidence, there is a wide gap between wages in
tourism between women and men. Heuwinkel (2024) acknowledged gender inequality as a
serious problem caused by the deep roots of gender stereotypes in society's norms, values, and
social attitudes. Relying on sociological theories, we realize that the structure of invisible power
and the interests of certain groups in society, in combination with stereotypes based on gender, is
dominant and leads to the creation of vicious cycles of conforming behavior to stereotypes and
their actions. With a clear focus on appearance and comfortable lifestyles, the tourism industry
still does not properly address gender issues, including inequality. One of the goals of sustainable
social development is the equal rights of men and women. In this research, we investigate the
role of gender in the managerial positions of tourism businesses in Muscat.
Women play a significant role in the tourism industry, and without them, the progress of the
industry would not have been possible to this extent. Women specialists can create a substantial
impact on the development and advancement of the tourism industry. However, according to past
studies, women are less utilized in management positions within the tourism sector. Statistics
show that the number of female employees in the hospitality and tourism sector in Muscat is very
limited. This study aims to examine the role of women in Muscat's tourism industry. In this
research, the challenges and opportunities available for women in managerial positions in
Muscat tourism and hotel management are investigated, as well as the factors limiting the
presence of women in Muscat.
The presence of women in tourism and hospitality contributes to sustainable development and
also eliminates gender inequalities. Also, in management positions, it can bring more diversity
and creativity and cause economic growth and improvement of business performance. Therefore,
the presence of women in tourism jobs should not be ignored, and gender equality in tourism
jobs is of great importance. In this study, we will examine the role of women in the management
jobs of hotels and tourism in Muscat.
The tourism industry has created many job opportunities, that's why tourism is one of the biggest
industries in the world. Women play a prominent role in world tourism businesses. One of the
indicators of sustainable development is community empowerment in tourism through equality
of gender positions and tourism development. Optimizing the role of women in tourism is also
important, which shows that society actively participates in planning, implementation,
monitoring, maintenance, and use activities and provides various opportunities for women's
active participation. As a part of society, women have the right and potential to participate in
tourism activities. Women's participation in tourism jobs can reduce gender inequality in
development. Promoting equality and empowering women became one of the agendas of the
third-millennium development goals (Tristanti, Nurhaeni, Mulyanto & Sakuntalawati, 2022).
Women have a prominent role in tourism jobs, but in mostly low positions, on the other hand,
women are less present in management positions. The presence of women in the workplace is
one of the positive effects of tourism development (Freund & Hernandez-Maskivker, 2021(.
Tourism plays an important role in the economy of countries and accounts for 9.5% of the global
GDP. 8.9% of the total employment in the world in 2013 was from tourism. The workforce is
very important in the tourism system, which provides excellent and first-class services. In
tourism and hospitality, there is a high diversity of jobs, for example: in the accommodation,
food and beverage, transportation, travel agencies, tour companies, attraction sites, there are job
positions, but of course there are injustices such as rights And there are poor working conditions,
sexual harassment, discrimination, unequal treatment, inadequate training, undemocratic and
rigid organizational culture. Of course, the seasonality of tourism and political issues and
instability strongly affect visitors, which also affects the labor force (Aynalem, Birhanu &
Tesefay, 2016).
Literature review
Female employees in tourism
Although jobs in tourism are growing rapidly and a large share of jobs are related to tourism, in
general, jobs in tourism have little income and the working conditions are very challenging, in
addition, the growth opportunity for women is very limited. Today, the number of female
employees in tourism jobs has increased, because they encourage women to be entrepreneurs for
the development of tourism. However, women face many challenges (Costa, Bakas, Breda,
Durão, Carvalho & Caçador, 2017).
Women play an important role in the business world, although they are offered fewer positions in
management and leadership positions. They are active in jobs that do not require special
expertise and have low incomes. In developed countries, women have a better position than in
developing countries (Cave, & Kilic, 2010). Many factors influence the choice of women in
tourism jobs, one of which is deeply influenced by legal approaches and cultural differences in
each country. Economic changes in Europe have had negative consequences for women, socialist
countries have been among the first to establish equality of law for men and women. In fact, men
and women depended on the social security system, where women had paid maternity leave and
affordable childcare facilities were provided to them. (maternity leave, daycare, childcare
allowance) means that women are more expensive workers, less reliable, and less efficient than
men. Managers are more interested in working with men when there is less labor demand, in
fact, they prefer men to women. (Obadić & Marić, 2009).
Tourism involves jobs that mostly require human interactions and therefore, as women are
known to be good at human skills, they are expected to perform better in the assigned tasks in the
tourism industry (Mohanty, Swain & Besra, 2018). According to the available evidence, men
receive 6.7% more salary than women in tourism industry. For other jobs outside of tourism, this
gap is 4.8%. According to the available evidence, it can be concluded that gender differences
among tourism workers are slightly higher than those of non-tourism workers (Muñoz-Bullón,
2009).
In tourism, because it is one of the industries with low incomes, the proportion of women
employed in it is high (Santos & Varejão, 2007). Burgess (2003) stated that women and men do
different types of jobs. They take on hotel management, but most of the jobs with higher income
and better positions are for men. The issue of the importance of women and the challenges they
face in tourism jobs for managerial positions has been neglected.
Challenges of female employees in tourism and gender inequality
Today, in most parts of the world, they give great importance to gender equality, there is an
undeniable fact that women's workforce also needs to grow at a constant speed. Gender equality
is named as the fifth goal of sustainable development and the third goal of the Millennium
Development Goals. In fact, to achieve these goals, equal opportunities for women and men
should be created. Academics give too much importance to tourism because they believe that
tourism will greatly reduce gender gaps, according to statistics, women make up between 60 and
70 of the workforce. Of course, these statistics do not guarantee gender strength, as there are
concerns about the wage gap and the assignment of weaker jobs to women (Mohanty, Swain &
Besra, 2018(.
Half a century has passed since the first congress to protect women against discrimination. This
civil law was approved in 1964 and today many women participate in tourism and hospitality
management classes and are present in work environments and hold important roles. Various
studies have been done in tourism and hotel management about gender discrimination, especially
in managerial roles. Mainly, as mentioned earlier, women earn less and often experience less
career advancement. Women usually have fewer opportunities for education and development.
Due to the fact that women work very hard in the workplace and are motivated to achieve
success, there are still many problems in this industry (Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2018). Is
there a need for educational programs for women to develop equally with men? Considering the
existence of evidence based on the fact that less women get better positions, gender differences
have not yet disappeared and it is necessary to conduct more studies in this field. Despite the
existing inequalities in the tourism and hotel industry, many women still fight to overcome
stereotypes (Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2018).
Also, in the studies, we came to the conclusion that women have many challenges, most of them
have not been exposed to good and proper education in terms of education, and business
investors in the hotel and tourism sector have not supported them enough in this sector. Also,
women do not have access to sufficient financial resources (Deen, Harilal & Achu, 2016).
In past international research, many studies have been done about the role of women and they
have announced the role of women as a mother and a wife. In almost all cultures, the role of
women is seen as the same and it is natural that the role of women in the system is defined and
presented by patriarchal forces (Deen, Harilal & Achu, 2016).
In an article by Sony (2012), it was stated that factors such as language, physical condition,
literacy level and family background are also important in determining the criteria. In fact, based
on the characteristics of the work, the role of gender is defined and highlighted. The heavy
workload of women at home: such as the demands of children, sitting dishes and clothes, and
cooking are also considered as challenges. Also, the lack of a reliable job market in tourism the
negative comments of close relatives, and the inability to balance family and work were among
the factors that can be considered as challenges. Of course, families were recognized as the most
important actors in creating these conditions, in fact, with the support of families, all issues will
be easier.
It is sometimes mentioned because in the tourism industry there are challenges such as long and
hard working hours, lack of days off for holidays and.... this job has made it challenging for
women because they have to balance between work and family. communicate In fact, the
existence of a policy of establishing a balance between work and life has made companies worry
about the welfare of women because they are mothers of a family in addition to the important
roles they play in society (Rana, 2017(.
Methodology
The current research was conducted with the qualitative method of thematic analysis strategy.
Thematic analysis is a method that is used in qualitative data to recognize, analyze, and report
patterns, in this method, qualitative data are divided, and finding patterns and concepts within
them is facilitated (Sofaer, 1999). The theme analysis was done in 6 steps; these steps include
familiarizing with the data and creating primary codes and coding (open and central), searching
for selective codes (basic themes), forming constructive themes, and defining and naming
themes. main and compilation of the main report. By using this technique, three categories of
themes called basic themes (codes and key points of the text), organizing themes (themes
obtained by combining and summarizing the basic themes), and overarching themes are great
themes that include the principles governing the text as a whole. will be extracted from talks,
conversations, and interviews. Basic themes are the closest themes to the statements of the
interviewees in the research (Tracy, 2024(.

In fact, because there is no special framework for investigating how the role of gender affects
management positions in tourism and hotel business, a qualitative approach was used in this
study. Information was collected using interviews, and the role of women in management
positions in the hotel and tourism industry of Muscat was examined. Also, challenges,
opportunities, and limiting factors for women's managerial roles were examined. Most of the
interview questions were provided in the table. (table 1(

num questions
1 What barriers do you believe exist for women to attain managerial positions in this
?industry
Experience – educational experience - shifts
2 What differences have you observed in the opportunities and challenges faced by
?women in this industry
Privacy more
Culture
They don’t like to work in a place with a lot of man and national workers
3 What factors affect the role of women in management positions within the tourism
?industry
 Majority of manager are man
4 Explain about culture and about family issues for working in tourism industry
Privacy – work in a place with more respect for culture
Society culture

A period of one month was considered for data collection. The study area for this research was
Muscat. This is because the author found that the number of female employees in Muscat's
tourism and hotel industry is extremely low, and there are also few women in managerial
positions. Inequality in the management positions of tourism and hospitality jobs is clearly
evident. In fact, even though Oman is a developing country and there are many hotels and
tourism companies there, women do not have much desire to work in this sector, or rather, there
is no opportunity for them to grow in their careers. There is no upper level. Here, the snowball
tool was used to collect data (Naderifar, Goli & Ghaljaie, 2017). After the interview, the person
was asked to introduce the next person. Sampling was done until theoretical data saturation was
reached (Morse, 1995). All interviews were conducted face-to-face and lasted between 40 and 50
minutes. The researcher continued the interviews up to the 7 person, and all of them were
managers in hotels and tourism-related businesses. whose details are specified in Table 2.

No age field experience education

1 40 Hotel manager 22 bachelor
2 32 Manager of travel agency 12 naster
3 50 Manager of tourism company 26 bachelor
4 36 Ministry of tourism 11 phd
5 45 Hotel manager 18 master
6 43 Hotel manager 18 master
7 35 Hotel manager 10 master

The interviews were transcribed, and key terms were subsequently coded. This coding process
underwent a review by two experts. Redundant codes were eliminated, and the finalized codes
were organized into a Manual analysis.
Results and discussion
According to the results, women play important roles in management and tourism jobs in
Muscat. After analyzing the data, the researcher concluded that there are several very important
issues in this department: lack of sufficient training, unwillingness to study in this specialty,
lack of satisfaction of families, and lack of acceptance of society's tradition are the most
important influencing factors. It was about the role of women in management positions in
Muscat.
Traditions thinking
All women who wanted to work and study in the tourism sector were scolded by their families at
least once. Families prefer their daughters to work in environments where there are fewer men.
isolated environments where there are more women. During the period of time when they
expressed that they would like to work in tourism jobs, they were constantly saying things like:
working the night shift in hotels and tourist centers is not suitable for women - or our culture
does not agree with women working, or you can't be alone. If you travel, they will meet. In fact,
all these sentences were disappointing.
the interviewee 1
I am 40 years old and worked as a human resources manager in a company for many years. My education is a
Bachelor of Human Resource Management. When I told my family that I wanted to work as a front office manager
in a hotel, they did not welcome my words with enthusiasm, because the traditional way of thinking is established in
society and according to them, working in the tourism business is a man's job.

Society culture
According to the culture of the general society in Oman, most people do not have much desire
for women to work in tourism and hotel related business environments and prefer most women
to work in educational and school environments. In fact, in hotels, because there are many
foreign guests, according to the culture of the general society, they do not want women to work
in these environments.
For example, the interviewee 2
I have been requesting cooperation from international hotels in Muscat for years, but my wife said that it is because
there are many employees of different nationalities in the hotels and it is an environment where travelers are
constantly coming and going. I don't want you to work in this environment at all, and this always annoyed and
disappointed me.

Lack of adequate training

According to the interviews conducted, one of the other reasons was that women are not
specifically trained to work in the tourism industry and hotel management. For example, despite
the existence of various schools and universities in Muscat, according to the interviewees, there
is no PhD in the field of tourism and hotel management in most of Muscat's universities. If
women want to study in this field, it is better to travel to universities in European countries, East
Asia, or even America.
the interviewee 3
I am 50 years old and my education is bachelor and I have been working in this sector for many years and I have
good experiences. I always wanted to continue my education, but the lack of a PhD position in this field deprived
me of the chance to improve my education. Also, I will train good students later. In my opinion, this field has many
capabilities that the training for the employees should be constantly updated and we should provide good services to
the customers.

Reluctance to work in tourism

In fact, women are more inclined to work in jobs such as teaching and training. Because in
tourism jobs, jobs are often dependent on the season, especially in a hot country like Oman, and
during peak travel times, the working hours are often long, and it is not possible to take time off
during holidays. Practically, in the hotel industry, when everyone is on vacation, you have to be
at work.
the interviewee 4
For example, I am 45 years old and I have 3 children. Earlier, it was Oman National Day and I was just working in
a hotel. As everyone celebrates this day together, but I was not with my family. That day was very difficult for me
and my family, and my wife and children were constantly complaining to me.

Dissatisfaction of families
One of the most important factors that affect women's success is their family's support. Without
family support, none of them can get a job promotion. Because a woman plays the role of a
mother or a wife in the society, and besides that, she can have good social positions.
the interviewee 4
For example, when I first started working in the hotel industry, my family was not very satisfied, but after 6
months, when they saw that I was getting a job promotion and after about 5 years, they offered me a
management position, they joined me more and tried to do this. pave the hard way for me.

Discussion
According to the research questions in this study, the challenges faced by women in tourism jobs
were discussed and their role in the tourism industry was also investigated. According to the
research question, we came to the conclusion that the traditionality of the society makes the
families do not have much desire for women to work in the jobs related to tourism and
hospitality. One of the limitations of the research is the unavailability of managers for interviews,
because most of the time in hotels, despite the many guests, they did not have enough time for
interviews. They were also reluctant to talk about limitations, although they may not have made
other things clear in the interviews. For future studies, it can be suggested that what can be done
for the future to create a balance between the labor force in the tourism and hotel industry of
Muscat. It is also possible to study how the efficiency of female managers in hotels in Muscat is
compared to men? In fact, according to the obtained results, education and awareness can be
very important. Certainly, the growth of this industry is very difficult without the presence of
women, and the presence of knowledgeable employees and managers can eliminate this gender
inequality to a large extent.
Conclusion
This study shows that women play a significant role in tourism jobs but are still underrepresented
in managerial positions. The findings indicate that various factors, including insufficient training,
lack of interest in pursuing studies in this specialty, family dissatisfaction, and societal tradition's
lack of acceptance, are the most critical influencing factors. Given the importance of women's
presence in the development and progress of the tourism industry, focusing on education and
enhancing women's managerial skills, encouraging families to support their education, and
changing traditional societal views can help improve the situation and increase women's
participation in managerial positions in this industry. These results can provide valuable guidance
for policymakers and tourism industry managers to create appropriate policies and programs,
offering equal opportunities for women and ultimately contributing to the sustainable
development of the tourism industry in Muscat.
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