HotelsMag May-June 2024 | Page 46

SPECIAL FEATURE : WOMEN IN HOSPITALITY

What on the minds of today ’ s women executives ? A lot . And in this Women in Hospitality feature , HOTELS looked to get it out of them — from what advances women have made in the myriad fields that serve hospitality to if the “ old boys club ” still exists . The good news is the more we highlight women in hospitality , the less we will have to write about it in the future . One day , there no longer will be a story to write because the hospitality industry will have reached rightful equity across it .

It ’ s still not there yet — and most would agree . But strides are being made and , in recent years , hotel companies have taken it upon themselves to create programs that not only highlight women in hospitality , but purposely make it core to their ethos .
How much , then , has changed ? HOTELS turned to 20 leading women executives in the hospitality industry , across a broad range of disciplines , to find out and learn what they are focused on in their specific lines of work as we move through 2024 and beyond .
HOTELS : How much improvement has there been made in the hiring and advancement of women in your specific field ? What needs to be improved ? Agnès Roquefort , chief development officer , Accor : The hospitality industry has made significant strides in the hiring and advancement of women . [ In fact ], Accor created its first gender equality charter in the workplace in the 1970s and
formalized its first diversity agreement in 2007 . We strongly believe that women should have the same opportunities as men
Agnès Roquefort
and that no woman should see her perspectives or ambitions restricted . As a mother of two daughters , the ability and ease for women to achieve leadership roles is very important to me . Presently , 42 % of the workforce at Accor is women and we have ambitious goals to recruit and retain women in leadership roles , which we are on track to achieve . By 2025 , we aim to have 40 % women on our executive committee ; 45 % women on our global
steering committee and senior leadership team ; and 40 % women as general managers . Allison Reid , chief global growth officer , Aimbridge : There has been vast improvement in the number of women leading and working in the hospitality development space over the past decade , driven largely by the increase in female college graduates in finance and real estate disciplines , combined with a general focus on
46 hotelsmag . com May / June 2024