142 Letter from Ulrike Gretzel
On Working with Others
Dear future women tourism researchers,
It is my greatest hope that when you read this, gender inequality will have become such an obsolete concept that you will ask yourself why all these female tourism researchers found it necessary to contribute to a book by and about women in tourism research. I usually don’t think of myself as a woman in tourism research. But then I attend a conference as a keynote speaker and I experience how differently my male counterparts are being introduced and treated. I also once looked at the salaries of my colleagues when I worked at a public university in the United States and couldn’t believe how much higher my male colleagues’ salaries were. Or, I read an email addressed to me or another female tourism researcher and wonder whether the tone and content would have been the same if addressed to a male. And, yes, I also get those emails from students who call me Mrs. Gretzel and then happily go on to refer to a male colleague as Professor.
There are many more instances that continue to shake me out of my (delusional) gender-neutral professional mindset. They are important reminders that the playing field in tourism research is currently far from being level despite the great numbers of female tourism students. They also highlight that there is a great need for celebrating the achievements of women in the field and for mentoring those women who would like to have careers in it. Tourism research continues to lose so many amazing women and is exploiting so many others that there is an urgent need for change. And even if these concepts may seem completely foreign to you, the tourism researcher of the future, there is probably still a need to fight for gender equality to maintain it.
So, here I am, trying to figure out what I could possibly contribute to this endeavor. I thought about listing all the amazing women in tourism who helped me and inspired me over the years, but there are simply too many! If you can’t say the same, make an effort to read the work of female tourism researchers, seek them out at conferences, follow them on social media, and send them an email letting them know that you would like to learn more about them or their work. I also considered giving general career advice, but I am a total procrastinator, I am constantly behind on deadlines because I can’t say no, I sometimes end up doing all the work in collaborative projects, and I have way too many ideas that never get published because I am a perfectionist. And I currently do not have a full-time, tenured appointment at an institution that values my contributions to tourism research. In a nutshell, nobody should take advice from me. Maybe you should stop reading this right now. In the end, I decided to focus on the hardest lessons I had to learn over the years but also the most incredible experiences I have had so far, and those are related to working with others.
Working with students
Whether