There are – still, despite the best efforts of legislation and awareness programmes – very few women at the top of the industry.
The chair of the Equal Opportunities Board, Jenny Watson, is on a panel with Alessandra Alonso (Shine People & Places) and Anita McErlean (AMC Consulting).
Some interesting points are being raised about how the travel industry treats women.
There are very few mentors for women in companies and in the industry.
We are not managing the talented women, especially those returning to work after having children.
But what dominates the debate is the thorny – and hugely uncomfortable for many – issue of positive discrimination.
Watson is eager to point out that being flexible does not equate with discriminating against men.
Jane Dyson from The Network – mother of six children – worries that this “all this talk” will mean people will be picked for jobs for the wrong reasons.
Hames notes: “It’s amazing how many women there are actually against feminism.”
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
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4 comments:
This session proved that women, on the whole, do not like to be stereotyped as a segment- the comments from successful women businesspeople in the audience confirmed this.
I attended the ITT conference and was the rather outspoken lady who probably went on a little too long...sorry..
I believe that women have more choice than ever!! There is absolutely NO STICKY FLOOR!!! Years ago, women had no choice but to stay at home to look after children. Now they can work part time, full time, flexi time or work from home if they choose to. The trick is not leaving it too long to return to work. The same options will soon be available to men, who will be able to share some of the maternity leave.
My company, New Frontiers has recruited for all levels of the travel industry since 1993. We have over 30 staff, 500 jobs outstanding at any one time, and 60,000 travel professionals registered. Our Executive Recruitment division helps senior candidates earning over 60k plus.
I can confirm that we simply have less applications from women for senior level positions. Women tell us that they are preferring to find a work/ life balance and find that board level positions are just too demanding and stressful for their lifetyles. Just as there are few female plumbers through career choice, I believe this is the case for Director vacancies in travel.
I think the Equal Opportunity lady had data that was irrelevant to the travel industry. I'm sure there are problems in other industries - such as finance - but NOT travel.
No travel company has evered preferred to hire men over women or paid women differently to men. In fact many companies would prefer more applications from women, they're just in short supply!
I'm also Chairman of the Association of Women Travel Executives and just under 70% of their members are Directors/ owners of travel organisations. There's also lots of women in travel who do hold very senior positions and are managing to juggle families too.
So leave us alone you 'do gooders'!!!!!! We like our new found choice. Mentoring is of course very helpful for balancing home/ work life priorities and in returning to work, but I truly believe there's no sticky floor to get stuck to. There's loads of opportunities out there girls if you want them.
Well said Julia Feuell. Just wonder though how successful your team of 30 people are, if you have 500 vacancies at any one time. Perhaps you should be employing more women!!
i have to agree with all the comments - after hearing such inspiration from Liz Jackson - the session fell flat & all it seemed to do was wind up the women in the audience & bore the men
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