International Conference Gender issues: Implications for leisure and tourism

Date: March 1st-3rd, 2012

Local: University of Aveiro, Portugal

Objectives: The conference organizers themselves are involved in a research project on gender and tourism (GenTour). The project combines gender, education, entrepreneurship and employment with ethic and economic issues. It aims to examine the importance of women in the tourism sector, and analyze and evaluate the reasons for and constraints to women’s vertical mobility. Suggestions will be made for improving the role and situation of women in tourism, in order to allow more balanced gender participation in the economy. In this sense, it is believed that the project can have strong managerial implications, thus contributing gradually to the empowerment of women, so that they can play a greater role in the global marketplace, also promoting national competitiveness and higher levels of wellbeing for the society. Besides its managerial implications, the project will provide substantial contributions to the advancement of knowledge on gender studies, namely on women’s participation in the tourism economy.

The conference, a part of this project, represents its forward looking component. It aims at creating space for critical thinking and debate, while bringing together scholars, young researchers, practitioners and policy makers, who have experience in research, teaching or practical work in this field. Presentations on innovative perspectives and critical discussion of the existing strategies, ideologies, current practices and projects of empowerment of women are especially welcomed. The aim is to build a critical glance at the endeavours and practices in this field, gain and exchange knowledge about chances and challenges of similar projects, and to think about their social, economic and political impact. The conference purpose is to both disseminate the findings of the GenTour project and raise awareness and critical thinking on women’s vertical mobility, and to explore new research possibilities, including cross-national research in similar domains.

Consult here the Programa Gentour Conference

By admin in News on 21/02/2012