The Contribution of Women in Latin American Tourism Research: CIET as a Succesfull Study Case

Introduction

In general, the tourism industry [so to speak from its inception] has been a great employer for women in different positions (Bownell 1994; Gentry 2007; Acharya & Halpenny, 2013). Over recent years, some voices have called attention to these positions that were subordinated to the authority of men. Under other circumstances, women even earned low wages while being subject to excessive working conditions (Duffy et al 2015; Cave & Killic 2010; Norrild & Korstanje 2021). Having said this, women have starred significant contributions and innovation not only to the tourism industry but also to tourism research [as well as epistemology] (Caton 2012; Chambers & Rakic 2015). Interesting studies in (Caton 2012) & Belhassen & Caton (2009) have applauded the role of women as a democratic agent of deconstruction that lays the foundations towards a new epistemology in tourism. As these works alert, the expansion of the colonial European powers in former centuries has been legitimated by a positivist version of the science. Some voices have been placed into a peripheral position or treated as irrational (child-like) actors. The dismantling of European Empires -in the mid of the twentieth century- has created a good opportunity for the rise of a deconstruction process where this relegated voices and knowledge gained further recognition. Today, tourism research has the opportunity to put women in a good position to deal with the limitations of an exhausted -if not old-fashioned- epistemology (Manwa, 2008). What seems to be more important, there is a belated recognition of women in applied tourism research, which needs to be discussed (Tucker 2009). For some reason, which is very hard to precise here, women have been historically relegated not only in the labor market but also in academic careers (Hjalager, 2003; Costa et al 2013; Bolles, 1997). As Kinnaird & Hall (2000) put it, the gendered perspective has been systematically discriminated from the epistemological discussion over decades. The opposite is equally true, the horizons of gender were monopolized by some radicalized discourses placing asunder some mix-balanced discussions. Aside from this, tourism research should incorporate the question of gender as a valid instrument to generate new theories and fresh alternatives to the problems the industry often faces (Pritchard, 2014). In the same line of inquiry, women earn lower levels of wages in tourism-related universities in comparison to men. At the same time, although women are included in the circles of professional tourism research, they are excluded from occupying chair positions. Some studies have widely shown how women are not only discriminated against but also, they are subject to material inequalities. Having said this, the obtained outcome reveals two important assumptions. Women are often limited to low-paid jobs or positions, while men monopolize the academic market. On another, men place a privileged position in research whereas women are displaced to teaching (Basurto-Barcia & Ricaurte-Quijano, 2017).