Hotel working conditions and challenges in a time of crisis : perceptions of spanish women managers

Abstract

The health crisis caused by Covid-19 is also driving a social and economic crisis that has a powerful effect on the hospitality sector. The large number of women employed in the sector means that the consequences of the crisis may have a disproportionate impact on female employment in hospitality. The objective is to analyse the experience of women hotel managers, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspective of theories that consider gender as a social construction. We have applied a qualitative methodology based on the analysis of 19 semi-structured interviews with women in positions of responsibility in hotels and hotel chains in Spain during the coronavirus pandemic. There are gender conditioning factors shaped by social construction, which have influenced the working conditions of women managers in the hotel sector, both before and during the pandemic.