Gender Inequality in Hotel Industry: A Sociology Essay Analysis

This essay delves into the pervasive issue of gender inequality within the workplace, particularly examining the hotel industry as a case study. It explores the historical and societal roots of discrimination against women, highlighting the patriarchal mindsets and gender stereotypes that contribute to their underpayment and underrepresentation. The essay analyzes the reasons behind women's exploitation in various industries, with a specific focus on the hotel management sector, discussing the gender segregation, the preference for male waiters in elite establishments, and the implications of such occupational divisions on women's socio-economic conditions. The essay also includes a reflective section, drawing on the author's personal experience within the hotel industry to illustrate the realities of gender segregation, sexual objectification, and the challenges faced by female employees. The paper underscores the need for societal change and governmental intervention to address these issues and promote gender equality in the labor market.

0SOCIOLOGY: GENDER INEQUALITY
SOCIOLOGY: GENDER INEQUALITY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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The respective paper is an essay that talks about discrimination of women in the area of
work and the reasons why women work more but remain underpaid in the labor industry and
market. The paper is an examination of the reasons behind women’s exploitation in the work
industries with special reference to hotel management. The gender segregation and preferences
of male waiters in the elite hotel industries, the reasons behind such regressive attitude and the
outcome of such occupational gender segregation in the socio-economic condition of the society
is also explained. The paper also has a reflection portion where I have to talk about my
experience in the hotel industry and the kind of gender segregation I witnessed in such industry.
Women have been undermined as compared to men throughout centuries in every society
all over the world, except for a few matriarchal societies. Women are considered physically and
intellectually inferior to men in many communities and culture. Therefore, no matter how much a
woman achieves, she is never given as much credit as that of a man. Even centuries after French
revolution, women have not received what they deserve for their labor.1 Even though women
work more than men in some areas, they are still considered “inferior” and have limited status in
the society. Few reasons why women are employed in low paid work is the patriarchal mindset
of the societies, also the fact that more than half of the women in the world who work or are
associated with labor industry tend to work part- time, therefore, their work is trivialized and
thereby, they are paid less. It has been found out that 5 7 per cent of part time work are being
carried out by the female population in the labor industry, according to World Economic Forum
2. Another important factor about why women are paid less is the act of “motherhood” which is
highly gender segregated and the responsibilities of rearing a child is often bestowed more upon
the female caregivers rather than the male, despite of fights for attaining a non-binary, gender
1 Pan, Jessica. "Gender segregation in occupations: The role of tipping and social interactions." Journal of Labor
Economics 33, no. 2 (2015): 365-408.
2 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/an-economist-explains-why-women-get-paid-less/

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neutral society. Wage penalty for motherhood is almost like a bane for women where, in spite of
celebrating motherhood, women are penalized for giving birth because the labor behind
motherhood does not count in capitalistic market and does not have any impact in the GDP
(Gross Domestic Product) of a nation3. It will be disheartening to know that the waitress industry
throughout the world and in America, are highly sexualized. The best candidates in the waitress
industry has to look and smell good and she should know how to sell her sexuality in order to get
tips and provide best customer experience to the diners, which is immoral in the way that the
women waiters are considered no less than an object of lust and sexual desire unlike the male
waiters. It would be surprising to know that male waiters do not have to take care of their looks
or sexuality as much as a waitress has to do which indirectly means that waitresses are at the
mercy of patriarchal and male- dominated sexual interest. Certain waitresses also claim that
being a “waitress” is a job for the “young females” because if females are still young, they would
remain beautiful, sell their bodies and physical attractiveness to attract customers and improve
the business. Capitalism, therefore, is disheartening where the morals and ethics related to
respect towards genders are completely lost in order to gain profit and earn money. It will also be
sorrowful to say that a woman who does not possess beauty and physical attractiveness in her is
highly undermined in organized as well as unorganized sectors of labor industry 4. Even in the
twenty first century, women are given credit in their workplace for their appearance and not for
their abilities or capabilities. Such reasons are the causes behind psychological ailments which
hundreds of working women go through in the modern, cosmopolitan and chrony capitalist
world. Gender segregation in hotel and hospitality industry is very much prevalent and is
3 Fitzsimons, Annette. Gender as a Verb: Gender Segregation at Work: Gender Segregation at Work. Routledge,
2017.
4 Fitzsimons, Annette. Gender as a Verb: Gender Segregation at Work: Gender Segregation at Work. Routledge,
2017.

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institutionalized because of more unskilled female employees and unorganized occupational
structure. Surprisingly, in the hotel industry, elite and five star hotels always hire “men” as
waiters because of certain foolish notions and stereotypes such as “five star hotels being loaded
all the time becomes difficult for women to manage” whereas, women waiters do exactly the
same amount of work (or even more) in the other ordinary yet popular hotels where they are
recruited. Social scientists have to work hard to understand the reasons for such underlying
misconceptions in the society which has created a toxic environment for the men and women
alike5. Occupational gender segregation has not only affected the economic condition of women
but also the families associated with them. A family, which is economically dependent on
working women, suffer greatly due to such gender segregation and low payment of wages.
Nowadays, women are as good students as men and they are excelling in every field, be it
science, arts, commerce or sports. The families of women have a lot of expectations from the
society and the labor industry regarding recruitment of women in correct sectors with proper
wages that they deserve. However, such does not happen and due to the inherent patriarchal
culture in the highly male dominated labor industry, women workers and employees are highly
undermined, underrepresented and underrated6. Women work more and are underpaid which
hampers their physical and mental health, resulting in less productivity and employability in their
future professional life.
I have been working in the hotel industry for more than a year and I have myself
witnessed the tremendous gender segregation in such industry. Men are given technical jobs to
do and women are given the jobs of exhibiting their physical attractiveness and desirability to
5 Fitzsimons, Annette. Gender as a Verb: Gender Segregation at Work: Gender Segregation at Work. Routledge,
2017.
6 Stier, Haya, and Meir Yaish. "Occupational segregation and gender inequality in job quality: a multi-level
approach." Work, employment and society 28, no. 2 (2014): 225-246.

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lure the customers (preferably male) into the restaurants. Women are sometimes given repetitive
and unproductive work to carry out, such as dishwashing and sweeping and they are amazingly
paid half of what a male waiter is paid in the restaurant, which is utterly disappointing. Apart
from that, women are also not safe in such industries. Women are always subjugated and
objectified for their bodily appearance and sexuality in such industries which is highly obnoxious
for their physical and mental health. I have witnessed the sexual objectification of women in
such industries and I believe that such attitude is very disturbing and needs to be addressed by
the government as soon as possible.
The respective paper concludes to be an essay that talks about discrimination of women
in the area of work and the reasons why women work more but remain underpaid in the labor
industry and market. The movie Dish: Women and the art of waitressing has been watched to
draw inferences for the essay. The essay concludes to be an examination of the reasons behind
women’s exploitation in the work industries with special reference to hotel management. The
gender segregation and preferences of male waiters in the elite hotel industries, the reasons
behind such regressive attitude and the outcome of such occupational gender segregation in the
socio-economic condition of the society has also been explained. The paper also has been
concluded by a reflection portion where I had to explain briefly about my experience in the hotel
industry and the kind of gender segregation I witnessed in such industry.