Women’s participation in tourism in Zanzibar: an enactment perspective

Nelly Samson Maliva

Research output: Thesisinternal PhD, WU

Abstract

To shed more light on the position of women in tourism, in this thesis I examined the ways women in Zanzibar have incorporated working in tourism in their daily lives by comparing those who work in tourism as entrepreneurs with employees, working in hotels and restaurants. Conceptually my thesis is framed within Weick’s theory of enactment, with special focus on the concept of sensemaking. I used this particular framework to understand how women either reinforce or resist gendered identities by constantly ‘enacting’ their environments. My research showed that the position of women in Zanzibar is highly influenced by religion, marital status and level of education. However, since women make sense of the environment in different ways, perceive different opportunities and constraints, and on the basis of these make different choices, I recommended that programmes customised according to the differences among women should be developed. Second, I argued that these tailor-made programmes should focus on four interventions: education and training, working conditions, self-organisation and microcredit.

Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • Wageningen University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • van der Duim, Rene, Promotor
  • Peters, Karin, Co-promotor
Award date14 Dec 2016
Place of PublicationWageningen
Publisher
Print ISBNs9789462579231
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Dec 2016

Keywords

  • tourism
  • zanzibar
  • participation
  • women
  • emancipation of women
  • labour
  • income
  • entrepreneurship
  • women workers
  • family life
  • society
  • tourist industry
  • swahili
  • standards
  • social values
  • gender relations

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Women’s participation in tourism in Zanzibar: an enactment perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this