Women

More than five of every eight food-service employees are now women. In 1973 about 10 per cent of the members of Meeting Planners International were women; ten years later this had risen to 57 per cent. Yet in all industries only 5 per cent of all working women are managers, while 15 per cent of all working men are managers. Much of the future growth in the labor force will come from women. To benefit most fully from the assimilation of women into the hospitality industry, it is necessary to examine some of the difficulties women encounter and to develop policies that will attract and keep productive female employees.

One factor that encourages the stereotyping of women in the workplace is the perpetuation of certain myths:

In fact, while the turnover rate of women is somewhat high, age and job level seem to be more important than sex in determining length of job tenure. More turnover occurs in lower-level positions and among younger employees. Women now tend to hold lower-level positions.

Absenteeism by women is almost equal to that of men. A recent US Public Health Service survey indicates that women lose an average of 3.9 days of work a year, while the figure for men is 3.1 days.

Lack of mobility also tends to be related to age rather than sex. Men as well as women who are older are less likely to relocate.

There are projections that the future female employee will be attached to her work, considering it more a career than a short-term job. Attachment is measured by the extent to which an employee's involvement in the work is substantial and permanent. Historically, the patterns of participation of women in the labor force have differed from those of men. The men's pattern has been and continues to be a simple curve, with participation in the labor force rising steadily through their mid-twenties, leveling off until their mid-fifties, then falling gradually after age 55 and more steeply after age 65. Women's participation rate curves have shown more of an M-shaped pattern. With an increasing proportion of women entering the work force through their early twenties, then leaving during their childbearing and child-rearing years, the participation rates have dropped until their late twenties, risen again until their mid-forties, then dropped once more, rapidly. Since 1950, however, participation rates for women of all ages between 20 and 55 have been rising, though they are still lower than those for men, and the M-like dip for young women has been flattening.

This suggests a new pattern for women consisting of high and continuing attachment to the workplace. Thus it appears that more women will be seeking careers rather than short-term jobs. This is in part reflected by the increasing percentage of women graduating from baccalaureate programs in hotel and restaurant management: in 1974 about 21 per cent of all such graduates were women; in 1980 the figure was 38 per cent. There is every indication this trend will continue.

The high, and increasing, participation of younger women in the work force indicates that they believe they can balance work outside the home with family demands.

As for the myth that women are too emotional, both men and women are subject to mood changes based on hormonal cycles. The principal differences are that the length of the male cycle is more variable and there are external signs of the female cycle. One female food and beverage manager responded in a survey: "A woman must act professional, even more so than a man, to be respected. I have a bubbly personality and a good sense of humor, but I find it necessary sometimes to tone it down in order to be taken seriously." 1

The survey also asked female food and beverage managers about their difficulties in dealing with peers, subordinates, purveyors and customers. Most indicated the need to establish themselves with the males with whom they come into contact. But the major problem reported, interestingly, was in dealing with female colleagues who came for advice on personal problems, felt they would receive preferential treatment, or were jealous of another woman's career success. This situation will undoubtedly improve as more women enter the ranks of management.

One explanation for the lack of women in managerial positions is that female socialization practices encourage the development of personality traits and behavior patterns that are antithetical to those expected of managers. It is argued, for example, that women have a fear of success because of the perceived incompatibility between achievement and a sense of femininity. It is said that men see risk as an opportunity to win as well as lose, for example, while women view it primarily as a chance to fail; men are said to see what they are doing as a step toward future career goals, while women look toward their immediate situation for fulfillment.

Additional research suggests that the fear of success may be a response to situational factors rather than an internal motivational state. For example, playing team sports, now more prevalent among little boys than girls, teaches the key elements of management: strategy planning, working with others, and competing.

The effect of socialization is seen in The Managerial Women, a study of twenty-five top female executives. All were firstborn children; most were close to their fathers, who encouraged them to be independent, self-reliant, and willing to take risks; team games were important to them as children; and all had a mentor, a male boss who encouraged and supported them.

There are a disproportionate number of male managers in the hospitality industry. With more females entering the supervisory as well as the hourly ranks, there will be more pressure on companies to promote women. There remain a number of barriers, however, to successful male-female business relationships. The most frequently given are:

• Men fear women as peers because they are unable to free on-the-job sexual tensions.

• Men have not been taught how to work with women as co-workers.

• Men fear that career women will exploit men's physical needs of women.

• Men do not trust or feel they understand women's emotions.

• Men fear that a career woman without a family can devote herself totally to the job.

• Men fear women as co-workers because their wives do not like it.

Certain practices will ease the transition of women into the hospitality work force, especially into supervisory positions. The key is to move women initially into positions in which they will have the most chance of success. This means selecting or developing women who have expertise in their field clearly superior to the majority of people to be supervised; putting them at first into positions least affected by sexual stereotyping (not, for example, chief engineer); choosing positions in which expertise is a large and important component of authority; and providing visible support for a management program to develop women.

Visible support can be demonstrated in a number of ways. Most existing compensation programs are male- oriented. A reshaping in light of the particular needs of women would be helpful. Flexible work schedules, the provision of day-care centers, relocation counseling for employee and spouse, and medical benefits specifically for women are some of the demonstrable ways this could be accomplished. It has only been since 1978 that employers in the US had to give equality of treatment to pregnant women, for example. Prior to 1978, many company health benefits specifically excluded pregnancy; women who became pregnant could not use accumulated sick leave. The law now requires that policies for pregnant employees be the same as policies for other temporarily disabled employees.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act in the United States prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex. (Additional provisions have added handicap and age as protected classes.) In essence, this means that a person should be selected for, promoted to, or fired from a job based on job-related factors alone.

It is generally accepted by the courts that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Management must develop and implement clear policies on sexual harassment in order to create and maintain an atmosphere that will promote women's growth in the workplace.

Managers are responsible for harassment, both physical and verbal, by superiors, co-workers, and even non- workers, such as suppliers or guests. Employers are responsible for the actions of supervisors even when they have no direct knowledge of those actions and even when company policy explicitly prohibits such actions. The manager may be held responsible unless immediate and appropriate action is taken.

To implement a preventive program, several actions are in order. Expected behavior of all employees should be spelled out in writing. The consequences of engaging in sexual harassment should be detailed, with more severe punishment for supervisors because of management's liability for their actions. Attitude training is a second step to sensitize employees to the problem. Part of this training should detail the rights and responsibilities of all employees. Third, a complaint mechanism and disciplinary procedure must be established and adhered. Such a procedure would establish different sanctions for the various forms of harassment. Attempted seduction is obviously more serious than a verbal remark. Employees must know that they have a way to report any harassment without being subjected to discipline from an immediate supervisor.

There will be more women in positions of authority in the hospitality industry of the future. To encourage the introduction and promotion of women into the workplace, the myths and fears that prevent management from productively utilizing women must be recognized and addressed through policies, practices, and procedures designed to select, train, and promote women to be productive.