Let’s Sit at the Table for Women’s Empowerment

Authors

  • Heather Jeffrey Middlesex University Dubai
  • Assia Riccio Evolvin Women
  • Cody Morris Paris Middlesex University Dubai

Abstract

We report on Let’s Sit at the Table, an ongoing series of seven (so far) roundtables launched in partnership by the Dubai based social enterprise Evolvin' Women and The Retreat Palm Dubai MGallery by Sofitel in September 2017. The roundtables were designed to explore best practices in the Gulf region driving women within the hospitality industry to senior leadership positions. Here we focus on one of the roundtables, which took place on February 21st, 2018 and was centered on the topic of empowering women in hospitality through education. The roundtable explored how to encourage women and girls to take up positions in fields where they lack representation, such as in the culinary arts. The roundtable was attended by ten experts in the areas of education and hospitality and revolved around several questions developed in line with the UN's Women Empowerment Principles (http://www.weprinciples.org/). To encourage further research we first briefly describe the problem as acknowledged in the academic literature and as experienced by one social enterprise in Dubai.

Author Biographies

Heather Jeffrey, Middlesex University Dubai

Heather Jeffrey is a lecturer in social sciences at Middlesex University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Heather's research interests lie in tourism and social inequalities, and her PhD research focused on women and tourism in Tunisia. Heather tries to blog and tweet on these themes, and you can follow her here: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/heatherjeffrey or on Twitter @H_L_Jeffrey.

Assia Riccio, Evolvin Women

Assia Riccio is the Founder of Evolvin’ Women, a socially responsible platform for sourcing female talents in hospitality, differently. Assia is a member of the Dubai Business Women Council and an Advisory Board Member for  Zawadi International for young entrepreneurs in Africa.

Cody Morris Paris, Middlesex University Dubai

Cody Morris Paris is the Deputy Director of Middlesex University Dubai and an Associate Professor in the School of Law and the Business School. He is also a Research Fellow with the University of Johannesburg. 

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Published

2018-07-08

How to Cite

Jeffrey, H., Riccio, A. and Paris, C. M. (2018) “Let’s Sit at the Table for Women’s Empowerment”, e-Review of Tourism Research, 15(4/5). Available at: https://ertr-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/ertr/article/view/236 (Accessed: 19 March 2024).

Issue

Section

Commentary