Gender in tourism

In an introduction to this special journal issue (see related abstracts in SA 43:4), three recent reviews of gender scholarship in tourism & leisure studies are compared. Vivian Kinnaird, Uma Kothari, & Derek Hall (1994) focus on tourist development processes as symbols of social change & embodiments of social practices in gendered societies ordered by gender relations. Power, control, & equality issues manifest themselves through race, class, & gender relations in tourist practices. Karla Henderson (1994) deals with the use of feminist theory in the past thirty years of tourism research; in her framework, gender scholarship in general has moved through five phases, which can be specifically applied to tourism scholarship: the male experience as universal; women judged by men's standards; different standards for males & females; the women-centered studying of women; & an interactional view of human beings & power relations. Soile Veijola & Eeva Jokinen (see SA 43:1/9500705) present a set of imaginary conversations with select tourism theoreticians. Their conversations probe for different, distinct life experiences & times in reaching an understanding of tourism. The articles in this special journal issue address gendered tourism experiences; the two main parameteres are ideologies of masculinity & femininity in host & guest populations, & social divisions of labor, power, & sexuality. 47 References. M. Pflum