A Design of Narrative Inquiry Work Session on Occupational Sexism in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

Occupational sexism has recently gained more attention, and people are beginning to realize how it negatively impacts women in various ways. Despite efforts made by governmental organizations and companies to address gender inequity in the workplace through laws and staff policies, occupational sexism still disproportionately affects women, even in industries where women are the primary workforce, such as the hospitality industry. To contribute to addressing workplace sexism, specifically in the hospitality industry, this project explores how the widespread male supremacy ideology and the failure of many companies to treat administrative regulations seriously prevent governmental policies and administrative regulations from effectively overturning occupational gender injustice. Through the analysis, the challenges for many to identify and admit occupational sexism and why women in the industry still prefer to remain silent or laugh off when confronting gender injustices will be demonstrated. Based on the illustration of how current efforts like laws and organizational regulations fail to tackle occupational sexism, this project proposes an online narrative inquiry work session as a potential solution to address gender injustice in workplaces. Using Zheng’s 5Ps model (2017), this work session will invite participants to analyze stories about women facing occupational sexism in the hospitality industry. The analysis of the stories aims to propel participants to avoid acting in sexist ways, inspire them to develop allyship with women facing occupational sexism, educate female participants about resisting gender injustice, and encourage participants to keep sharing stories to educate more people in disparate industries about challenging workplace sexism. With collective efforts, occupational sexism will be more likely solved.