Women in the travel industry have been called on to fight against gender inequality in the sector especially over pay.
In a session on the final day of the three-day GBTA Convention in Orlando, a panel of senior female leaders discussed inequality in pay and opportunity that still exists in travel and business as a whole.
Gail Grimmett, senior vice-president for New York at Delta Air Lines, believes not enough is being done to bring attention to the issue but called on women to “stand up” and “fight the battle themselves”.
“Unfortunately [pay inequality] exists - and it shouldn’t - because you want to feel valued in your job and by your colleagues. There are avenues where women can fight… some of us aren’t good at asking our bosses for compensation and saying ‘I deserve to be valued’.
“If you're in an organisation that doesn’t recognise that inequality then realise you have a choice and find a place that does. That's when companies will stand up and notice.”
The session, entitled Leading ladies: Success and the Travel Procurement Gender Gap, was led by senior category strategist at insurance firm Liberty Mutual, Melissa Burkland.
She was joined on a panel by Grimmett, Krissy Herman, director of travel at consultancy firm Kesselrun, president of World Travel Dee Runyan and Erin Wilk, senior VP of global security at Bank of America.
Burkland used recent stats throughout the session to back up the argument of pay inequality among men and women, such as in 1963, women in the US earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. Today women earn an average of just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
Wilk called on women in the industry to start “creating your own personal brand” and be more self-promoting on “work successes”.
“A lot of your own success is how you choose to tell your story,” said Wilk. “It takes time and courage. But by being different you can be successful… make the effort to stand out.”
She added: “I urge you if something is challenging such as disparity in pay, leadership etc, speak to your senior team and do something about it.”
Runyan praised certain TMCs for “progressing at a faster rate” than other parts of the travel industry on the issues but conceded this could be because TMCs are “generally more female dominated”.
Grimmett added that the stats around gender inequality are “sad” because a lot of the companies they relate to are large global organisations and “businesses should be representative of the customers they serve”.
Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister David Cameron brought forward rules to make companies with more than 250 workers reveal whether they pay men more than women.