Internal Barriers for Women Career Advancement in Sri Lankan Hotel Industry (With Special Reference to Five Star Hotels)

Hospitality industry underscores a high inequality in women's' empowerment and career advancements in most of the countries. The issue is more critical in the developing countries like Sri Lanka where as they face many challenges, often concentrated in low status, low paid and unsecure jobs in the hotel industry. With the increased number of women workforce who enrolled with higher education in the past few decades, a proportional incensement for women employees has not been rooted in the higher managerial positions in most of the Sri Lankan hotels. As concerns tourism presents a wide range of prospects for an individual in the international arena, most of the hotels still do not recruit, promote or assist women workers. Women are seldom in find managerial positions. In recent years, the increased number of women in the hotel industry and their underrepresentation in top management positions has made women's status in the industry a great concern. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which women face internal barriers in order to grant the routes to reach more opportunities for women career advancement. The study was done on 67 women executives from five star hotels in Sri Lanka. Organizational culture was traced as the major internal barrier for women employees in Sri Lankan hotels where as gender equity, lack support, and personal characteristics encountered the issue. Career advancement was apprehended by cross industry concern, strategic management, decision making and own initiatives