The accommodation sector is a key player in the hospitality industry with a major contribution to the economies of countries across the globe. For instance in Canada, 30% of all the visitor spending is directly attributed the cost of accommodation indicating the significance of the sector to the GDP of the country (Barrows, 2011). Alongside the food and beverage, the accommodation division forms the bulk of the hospitality industry. In as much as the sector is an important contributor to the economies of countries, sexual harassment within this line of profession has been an issue the dims the brightness of its success. With recent increase in the incidences of sexual and other forms of harassment in the workplace, the issue of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector has been a centre of focus of most research (Solotoff & Kramer, 2018). In this regard, this paper draws from past and present research to discuss the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace with particular reference to accommodation.
Demystifying Sexual Harassment in the Accommodation Sector
According to the Centre for Gender Equality (2018), sexual harassment is broadly considered as any pervasive and/or repeated behaviors of unwanted sexual comments, joking, advances, explicit sexual discussions or innuendo, touching, or an implied notion that sexual harassment must be tolerated in order to maintain employment, or to avoid adverse employment action. Notably, the definition of the harassment encompasses both the aspects of the action of the harassment as well as the intention behind tolerating the act, which then qualifies such an act as being sexual harassment. It suffices to underpin that sexual harassment is prohibited, at least in the United States as it is a form of discrimination that is guarded against by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Kensbock et al., 2015). This law ought to be understood by any employer, not just within the accommodation sector as it is part of the responsibility of the employer to protect the employees against any form of discrimination as liability of the discrimination that occurs within their premises can be held on them. Accordingly, two forms of sexual harassment that occur in any workplace are termed as either being quid pro quo or a hostile work environment (Ineson et al., 2013). In the quid pro quo form, an employer or an employee in a superior position makes unwanted sexual advances towards an employee, and in doing so either categorically states or implies that the victim provides some form of sexual favor in exchange for employment benefit or harm such as promotion or demotion, continued employment or loss of the same, or by getting a good or poor work evaluation and so on. In the second form of sexual harassment in the workplace, a person feels that their work environment is offensive, uncomfortable or discriminatory (Ineson et al., 2013). This makes it easier for harassment that is either sexual in nature or directed towards a particular sex to be easily conducted. Evidently, sexual harassment is a broad form of discrimination that can take many forms.
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Sexual harassment in the accommodation sector is an issue that worth serious attention not only for scholars but more importantly for policy makers and law enforcers (McDonald, 2012). Notably, such importance draws from the fact that this form of harassment has been in existence for some time now with the current incidence rates not showing very good promise. According to a recent survey, in the larger of hospitality industry, of which the accommodation sector is a key component, 89% of workers reported that they had been through some form of sexual harassment among the ones in the definitions aforementioned (Tanzi & Dmitrieva, 2018). This reflects the rampant nature of the vice as it occurs in the accommodation sector. In essence, the findings indicate that for every ten employees in the sector, nine are experiencing or have experienced some form of sexual harassment. Clearly, the burden of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector and the hospitality industry in general is at alarming rates requiring important policy considerations with full adherence in order to reduce if not utterly eliminate this form of discrimination within the industry.
Relevance to Women’s Equality in the Workplace
The issue of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector has important relevance to the bigger picture of women’s equality in the workplace (McLaughlin et al., 2012). It suffices to emphatically state that the issue of sexual harassment is not entirely targeted to reflect harassment of employees of the female gender. This is because the definition of sexual harassment provided above encompasses the acts of sexual harassment that are either sexual or targeted towards a specific gender but not necessarily the female gender. However, according Vettori & Nicolaides (2016), women comprise the majority of the employees in the accommodation sector and the larger hospitality industry. In essence, about 70% of all employees within the industry are female which makes the issue of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector mainly focus on the equality of women in the workplace. As such, prevention of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector is integral in attaining gender equality for women in the workplace in general.
Socio-Demographic Differences Pertaining to Sexual Harassment in the Accommodation Sector
Socio-demographic demographic differences such as class, race, and gender weigh in significantly on addressing the menace of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector. Particularly, there is a big difference on the view of men and women on the issue of sexual harassment. For instance, it has been shown that men generally underestimate the amount of sexual harassment that occurs in the hospitality industry. As such, men generally view some form of sexual harassment as not being actually a sexual harassment (Tanzi & Dmitrieva, 2018). This has led to some scholars to postulate that the answer to the question of whether an action is a form of sexual harassment will depend on whether the responder is male or female. Moreover, most studies in this area have utilized the stereotypical female victim/male offender in their studies reflecting even the more, the influence of gender on the issue of sexual harassment. Clearly, gender plays a key role is deciding what one perceives as being a form of sexual harassment. This could lead to higher proclivity of perpetration of sexual harassment by males in the accommodation sector. Past research has also indicated racial differences regarding the issue of sexual harassment in the accommodation division of the hospitality industry. According to Giscombe (2018), sexual harassment against women of color has been of color has been a major concern for women of color who seem to receive more radicalized and stereotyped treatment compared to their female counterparts. For instance, the rate of prosecution in cases where the victim was a white woman was found to be approximately 75% while the figure was a mere 34% percent in cases where the victim was a woman of color (Giscombe, 2018). Evidently, socio-demographic features such as race and gender relay important differences with regards to their input on the issue of sexual harassment in the accommodation sector.
In a nutshell, the accommodation sector plays a key economic role within the hospitality industry and in the economy of countries as a whole. Accordingly, it is important that the working environments be made conducive for workers within the division to work optimally without any fear of sexual harassment. However, the vice continues to be a challenge within the accommodation sector, which has majority of its employees as women. Although some differences exist regarding the view of the issues based on different socio-demographic categories, it is generally agreeable that sexual harassment only but negative impact on the economy which necessitates collective efforts from all stakeholders to minimize its occurrence.
References
Barrows, C. (2011) Introduction to the Hospitality Industry, 8th Edition John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Centre for Gender Equality (2018) Sexual and Gender-based Harassment and Violence in the Workplace Retrieved from https://www.jafnretti.is/static/files/2018/sexual-harassment-and-violence.pdf
Giscombe, K. (2018) Sexual Harassment and Women of Color | Catalyst: Workplaces that Work for Women. Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/blog/catalyzing/sexual-harassment-and-women-color
Ineson, E. M., Yap, M. H., & Whiting, G. (2013). Sexual discrimination and harassment in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 35, 1-9.
Kensbock, S., Bailey, J., Jennings, G., & Patiar, A. (2015). Sexual harassment of women working as room attendants within 5‐star hotels. Gender, Work & Organization , 22 (1), 36-50.
McDonald, P. (2012). Workplace sexual harassment 30 years on: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews , 14(1), 1-17.
McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review , 77 (4), 625-647.
Solotoff, L. & Kramer, H. (2018) Sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace New York, N.Y Law Journal Seminars-Press
Tanzi, A. & Dmitrieva, K. (2018) Men and Women See Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Differently | Bloomberg LP. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-03/sexual-harassment-in-workplace-is-seen-differently-by-men-women
Vettori, S. & Nicolaides, A. (2016) Sexual harassment at the workplace in the hospitality industry African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure 5 (2);1-15
