Maldives tourism industry is ideally regarded as the baseline of the country's economy due to its significant contributions towards state revenue as well as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output. Moreover, reportedly the economic sector both directly and indirectly covers 70 percent of the country's GDP, which makes the Maldives economy reliant on the sector heavily.
Latest reports indicate that the country currently has over 150 tourist resorts, more than 600 guesthouses with over 150 safaris and liveaboards – all catering to the tourists. The bed capacity is close to 40,000 in a collective capacity.
Furthermore, a major portion of the Maldivian workforce is also either directly involved or affiliated in the tourism industry. However, a report dated back to 2011 from the Lund University identified that only three percent of the labor force of the Maldivian tourism industry is made up by local women as opposed to 51 percent of local men – the percentiles have probably since changed and is subject for a reassessment once again. But there has not been a paradigm shift in the involvement of Maldivian women in the industry despite a near-decade has passed.
Obviously, there is no denying that many abled and experienced women are currently holding reputable position in various tourist properties across the Maldives; even so, the collective figure of women actively working in the industry is still comparatively and significantly lower than that of Maldivian men. This begs one to ask the question about why the number of Maldivian women working in the tourism industry is still less. Perhaps owing to various challenges.
One of the major Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the Maldives was to promote gender equality and empowerment – which is still not fully achieved. However, other goals such as providing universal primary education to the country's population has observed fruition.
There is visible disparity between the genders in terms of unemployment which back in 2010 was reported to include 24 percent of women compared to just 8 percent of men. Meanwhile, women's participation in labor is strongest in sectors such as education, health, agriculture and manufacturing while tourism sector is still one of the lowest participated sectors.
However, based on the cultural identity and the historical values of the island nation; there are variables that act as limitations with regards to the involvement of women in the tourism industry.
One of the major challenges that several women as well as the collective community had identified were cultural and religious issues. The issues primarily are rooted out from preconceived notions and beliefs that endorse the idea of men holding exclusivity in the service or tourism industry. This relates to more of a cultural reason than a religious narrative.
Other challenges that are parallel to cultural issues include social preconceptions about women's involvement in the hospitality industry. For ages, it had been widely understood and narrated even, that men are better equipped in working in the tourism industry which warrants them to live and work a considerable portion of their lives away from their families.
This is where the involvement of women in raising families come into the picture; which again is another social-construct generally accepted by the masses – that women must take a more intimate role in raising the families compared to men and must therefore, avoid occupations that warrant them to work away from their families.
A thorough analysis is needed to study the modern-day situation of the active involvement of women in the tourism industry. This has become extremely crucial at a time where even the country's government has voiced its endorsement on women empowerment across economic sectors in the country; including the tourism sector.
This would give a more in-depth look into how much the involvement of women in the economic sector has grown over the past decade.
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