It’s International Women’s Day on 8th March; Professor Kate Dashper from Leeds Beckett University gives us her insights into gender differences in the industry and how they can be rectified.
Every year, the world comes together to celebrate International Women’s Day; but in an industry where 80% of its workers are female but only 20% of senior/leadership roles are filled by women, it’s clear that more needs to be done for complete equality, beyond celebrating women one day a year.
Professor Dashper is a Professor at the School of Events, Tourism, and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University and one of her many expertise is gender studies. She explains why senior roles in
the industry are disproportionately male dominated: “A big barrier for women is balancing work with caring responsibilities. Of course, it’s not only women do this, but it tends to still be that women are mostly responsible. Events are quite unpredictable hours and often involve a lot of travelling which can be difficult if you have children but to climb to more senior positions, you really need to do those things.
“There are also still implicit barriers and stereotypes in society and the industry surrounding networks. A lot of the events world is very much ‘who you know’ and these networks perpetuate themselves. It isn’t necessarily deliberate, but we gravitate to people who we trust, which makes networks that tend to be full of similar people.
Kate believes that there’s no quick solution to gendered issues in the industry but talking about them is a good way to start: “A few years ago, gender and women in events was a hot topic, and that’s reduced a lot recently. There are events and panels that have already discussed gender so are now looking for something different, but the issues are still there; there’s just a lot less focus on it.
“People are very nervous talking about gender and any other forms of diversity. We tend to see it discussed on an individual level but not organisational. While it is great to have role models and examples of women doing well, the issues are more embedded. I don’t think the events industry is particularly bad; this is a society wide issue.”
Although it doesn’t hold all the answers to gender equality, International Women’s Day is an ideal starting point for companies to start a conversation: “I do think it matters that businesses do something to celebrate their female employees – which they should be doing anyway – but it’s a difficult one because compartmentalising it to one day is quite problematic, especially when it’s only done for promotional purposes. It’s also important that not too much of the work for International Women’s Day is left for women to do, it should be an organisational responsibility.”
The industry is constantly improving, but there’s still work to be done: “There have been improvements over the years, and the events sector has the capacity to be a leader in this area, because there are so many women, and there are lots of women doing well at all levels. But there are more structural issues, and it would benefit men and women if we were better at finding ways to balance care responsibilities and professionalism at the highest level; we need to remove this idea of if you’re not a full-time worker, you’re not as committed or suitable for a leadership position.”
Looking ahead to the future, Kate believes that young people are one of the key forces to make a change: “With more young people coming into the industry, we’re seeing a real generational shift – which is great! One of the best ways organisations can address gender inequality at senior level is to support young women coming into the industry.
A lot of my students have said that they don’t want work to be everything, so to attract and keep young people in the industry, they need to be shown that work is a part of life and not a whole life!”