Keep Your Cupcakes We Want Impact
March marked International Women’s Day and Women’s history month. At WORTH Association, we set out to challenge the industry to recognize IWD with impact, instead of the usual “celebrations”. How did your organizations deliver? Were you asked to stand for a photo in the lobby for social media? Were there cupcakes? Did you get breakfast? I would go out on a limb and say whatever took place, it was likely organized by women and made zero impact towards gender equity.
At the BC Tourism and Hospitality Conference, women were asked to stand in recognition of IWD with a round of applause. Imagine a conference room with 70% women on their feet, including the executives, politicians, and association leaders who kept the industry afloat these past two years. These women were then told to “go clean some rooms and do the dishes” by the Chair of TIABC. He would later apologize saying this was a joke to show the severity of the labour crisis, but the damage was done. Every woman in the room felt the familiar sting of misogyny. We will celebrate you but we will knock you down.
Make no mistake, this was harassment. CBC would later uncover a history of vile statements made by the Chair and resort leader. When asked to comment, I shared that while we’re horrified to learn about this, we’re also not surprised. Our team at WORTH all have stories of the harassment, microaggressions, discrimination and bias they’ve endured. You probably do too. We are done being silent and hope you are as well. It’s time to speak up - even if your voice shakes - to hold our leaders, organizations, and associations accountable.
Women face equal levels of harassment from customers, colleagues and management. Studies show they would rather leave their organization than report it. We consistently hear that there’s a zero-tolerance policy, but then see the perpetrators protected. It’s a familiar story in tourism and hospitality, made very public this past week. We’ve had enough.
The day after the humiliating opening remarks at the conference, I presented our research on retaining and developing women. The conference organizers attended, as well as the Chair who was “ready to learn”. I did not mince words. I said we will never tolerate this kind of conduct and will hold our industry associations accountable on their commitments. We’ve been in consultations with TIABC and the BC Hotel Association and will continue to advocate to eliminate the barriers women face in these industries. I encourage you to look at our research and challenge your organization with a gender equity audit as a start.
International Women’s Day is a good time to reflect on how far we’ve come, and how much more work there is to do. It will take all our voices to affect real change and I’m glad we’ve gotten a little louder. Keep your cupcakes, we want impact.
Joanna