We Lead: Women Leadership in Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality

The ITRC was a participant and leading partner in the Erasmus+ Project Women Leadership in Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality (WE LEAD). The project was carried out in cooperation with companies and institutions in Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Iceland. The project started in October 2022 and ran for two years (2022-2024).

The main aim of the project was to create open educational resources and training programs to equip VET educators with knowledge of current facts and best practices relating to the challenges, development needs and opportunities faced by women in tourism, hospitality, and leisure.

Gender stereotypes are at the core of tourism employment in Europe. Women are exposed to discrimination in terms of their jobs, wages, working conditions, promotion, and internal social relations due to their gender. Weakened career opportunities and social protection, gender gaps in pay, and heightened levels of precarious employment, the division of labour between women and men have a negative effect on the way in which women are perceived in the labour market.

WE LEAD worked to break down these barriers and enable inclusion for all women working in the sector, who are currently unable to advance their education or careers due to these barriers. WE LEAD aimed to create inclusive environments that foster equity and equality and are responsive to the needs of the wider community.

Furthermore, our women leadership proposition must be underpinned by the key challenge of our time, climate change. There is a growing consensus among tourism stakeholders as to how the future resilience of tourism will depend on the sector’s ability to embrace a low-carbon pathway and cut emissions by 50% by 2030. Through WE LEAD we elevated the visibility, leadership, and collective impact of women in tourism leading to a more sustainable future.

Information about the project and its resources can be found on We Lead's website.

Supervision on behalf of ITRC was in the hands of Guðrún Þóra Gunnarsdóttir, director of ITRC, together with Vera Vilhjálmsdóttir, researcher at the ITRC.