1. Engaging the Private Sector in the Promotion of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment through TourismICRT Responsible Tourism ConferenceLondon, 8th January 2010 Lucy Ferguson Department of Politics University of Sheffield l.j.ferguson@sheffield.ac.uk

2. Introduction What are gender equality and women’s empowerment and why do they matter? Global policy context – Millennium Development Goal 3 Structure and objectives of presentation 2

3. Gender inequalities in tourism work Gender inequalities in the distribution of benefits of tourism Gender inequalities in tourism communities Complex and contradictory outcomes for gender equality and women’s empowerment – tourism development reconfigures gender relations Gender Inequality in Tourism 3

4. Current policy on gender and tourism development UNWTO Women in Tourism Taskforce World Bank – ‘Gender Equality as Smart Economics’ approach Current examples of projects promoting women’s economic empowerment 4

5. How to make gender equality a fundamental component of pro-poor tourism approaches? To what extent want to tackle inequality? What kind of notion of empowerment want to work with? Economic or more broad? Who are ‘women’? What about differences between women along class, nationality and ethnicity lines? Some important reflexive questions 5

6. Stage 1: Review of operations - where is gender equality component in current work? Stage 2: Theoretically-informed analysis and conceptual clarity before attempting any gender equality programme Stage 3: Contextual analysis - understand inter-sectionality and power relations in specific location Stage 4: Integrate local women’s own concerns and wishes or aims will be misguided Stage 5: Design specific programme and/or projects to use tourism to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment Recommendations 6

7. The more clear the objectives and conceptual clarity, the more effective any outcomes are likely to be No ‘quick fix’ solutions – will require analysis, implementation, reflection and evaluation in order to be successful Convergence of global development policy and tourism development policy around gender issues – good moment to seize these opportunities Open a dialogue – l.j.ferguson@sheffield.ac.uk Concluding Comments 7