Comment: Embrace equity for the long term

International Women’s Day is a valuable opportunity to celebrate women, reflect on where we are in addressing the ongoing inequalities in our industry and society, and to take a stand against them.

This year’s theme is embracing equity, and while I am encouraged by the progress that is being made, it remains a frustration that embracing equity is still a needed call to arms. It should be a given – and I look forward to a time when we look around our offices and our boardrooms and see diversity, in all its forms, reflected back at us.

I have made it my life’s work to turn any frustration I feel into positive action, and thankfully I am witness to meaningful and tangible change and impact on a consistent basis. One important point to make is that, while IWD is a useful spotlight on the subject, embracing equity is of course something we should do all day, every day. Women in Travel CIC exists to support women 24/7/365 – particularly the least privileged, represented – and I am thrilled by the life-changing results that we see.

So, what is the current state of play in the travel industry? It is generally established that while the number of women in the travel industry is broadly equal to the number of men, the ratio significantly drops at senior and executive level. It is getting better, and we have an increasing number of incredible female leaders in our sector, but the industry is losing a disproportionate amount of female talent somewhere in the middle, often due to maternity leave and the subsequent imbalance of childcare responsibilities, perhaps to do with perception, confidence, or old-fashioned prejudices.

But we’re missing out on a huge commercial opportunity here. Globally, women make a whopping 80 – 85% of the decisions when booking travel. We need more female decision-makers and figureheads that can better understand and empathise with our core audience, and influence and grow the market. So how do we make it easier for women to stay and progress in their roles?

Firstly, we need to support each other – and Women in Travel’s mentoring circles, IWTTF platform and male allyship programme can make a real difference. Across these platforms, we are giving voice to women and their experiences – educating the wider industry on the rationale and the tools to effect change – and giving women the confidence, mentoring, support and environment that will encourage them to progress.

We are also a grassroots organisation, and we train and support women – often from marginalised or vulnerable positions – into roles in travel.

For example, a woman from our community – Fatima – has recently begun a paid work placement with Intrepid Travel. Soon to follow, we have a group of ten women being sponsored by Google to complete our employability programme, and who will be ready and available to explore industry employment in June. We also have a group of women who have recently completed our Tour Guiding Academy training and are now designing their own authentic, ‘off the beaten track’ experience of their own neighbourhoods.

All these are opportunities that the travel businesses can talk to us about and implement, increasing the diversity of their workforce and product in the process, and showing commitment to embrace equity not just for a day, but for the long term.