A Hybrid BWM-TOPSIS and RAWEC Approach for Evaluating the Gender Gap in Global Tourism Destinations
International Conference of Applied Business and Management (ICABM), Porto, Portekiz, 25 - 26 Haziran 2026, ss.77-79, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Porto
- Basıldığı Ülke: Portekiz
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.77-79
- Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Purpose: This research critically examines the "gender paradox" within the global tourism industry—a phenomenon where the sector's high quantitative reliance on female employment paradoxically reinforces and reproduces systemic inequalities rather than dismantling them (WEF, 2023). Theoretically, the tourism sector codes roles such as hospitality, service, and care as inherently feminine domains, leading professional female labor to be perceived as a mere extension of unpaid domestic work and consequently devalued (Mooney, 2018). Contrary to widespread assumptions that the industry fosters economic empowerment, theoretical debates indicate that tourism can turn into an arena that perpetuates patriarchal structures and deepens disparities (Ferguson, 2011). In this context, the primary objective of this study is to uncover the macro-cultural roots of the gender gap across the world’s top ten most visited tourist destinations. By evaluating women's status across three intersectional dimensions—household, social life, and working life—the study aims to analyze the direct impacts and causal relationships of these dimensions on destination-based empirical ranking outcomes.
Methodology: To ensure analytical integrity, the selection of variables (criteria) in this study is grounded in comprehensive gender literature, specific research objectives, and the methodological frameworks of international indexes that guarantee objective cross- national comparability. To reflect the multi-dimensional nature of women's status, quantitative labor statistics and qualitative/perceptual socio-institutional indicators were balanced to determine 3 main criteria and 13 sub-criteria. The model incorporates nominal earnings and employment ratios for the working life dimension (ILO/OECD); the burden of invisible domestic labor and family planning parameters for the household dimension; and civil liberty restrictions alongside discrimination scores for the societal dimension (SIGI/GGGI). The Best-Worst Method (BWM) was chosen for weighting these data to minimize the cognitive burden on expert decision-makers and maximize
consistency (Rezaei, 2015). For performance evaluation, the traditional TOPSIS method was utilized to establish a distance-based benchmark, while the novel RAWEC method was integrated into the model to capture deviations in complex benefit and cost-oriented social indicators simultaneously and with high precision via its double-normalization mechanism (Puška et al., 2024).
Results: According to the BWM weighting analysis, "Women's Place in Society" emerged as the most decisive macro dimension of the gender gap with a weight of 58%, within which "Restricted Civil Liberties" crystallized as the most critical sub-criterion. Rather than offering a simple numerical layout, the final ranking results decipher the deeply rooted gender systems operating within these destinations. Spain, France, and Italy, which consistently rank at the top of both the TOPSIS and RAWEC models, exhibit a robust institutional alignment between progressive social policies and female labor autonomy. On the contrary, Türkiye and Japan occupy the lowest positions across both models, demonstrating that despite their immense tourism potential, the mere presence of women in employment does not automatically translate into social justice. In these contexts, the high value of the invisible domestic labor variable selected within the household domain confirms that the burden of childcare and domestic duties on women's shoulders is radically high. These domestic structural barriers constrain women's professional advancement and hinder their access to upper management roles, validating the glass ceiling effect (Zhang & Zhang, 2020). The high correlation observed between the two methodologies validates the empirical power and reliability of the RAWEC approach.
Conclusion and Originality: This research provides a critical theoretical contribution to the global tourism literature by shifting the focus from quantitative employment figures to quality of employment through a rights-based framework. The fact that women constitute 54% of the global tourism workforce but still earn 14.7% less than men proves that gender justice cannot be measured solely by sectoral participation rates (UNWTO, 2023). Methodologically, as one of the pioneering applications integrating the RAWEC model into tourism management and social inequality assessments, this study offers a concrete message to policymakers: sustainability in tourism is not achievable by merely utilizing women as a passive workforce (objects of labor). Instead, it requires expanding civil liberties, alleviating domestic burdens through institutional mechanisms like flexible working arrangements and affordable childcare, and ensuring women are actively represented as independent subjects of rights within managerial decision-making structures.