Overview

The absence of a broad feminist perspective on hospitality seems a curious oversight given that many host-guest relationships are overlain by social relations of gender (Aitchison, 1999). Sociologists have long since established that our words give us away; thus expressions such as land lady, bell- boy or house wife assume a crucial significance when considering the importance of gender in accounting for hospitality roles and expectations. Hospitality is, thus, deeply implicated in any analysis of patriarchy.

Our starting point in this chapter is that the term hospitality has been selectively appropriated to denote a large-scale service industry providing overnight accommodation and/or drink and/or food on a commercial basis. It represents, in essence, the commodification of domestic labour. To use the term in this way involves an extended metaphor, implying that good practice in commercial hospitality is a simulation of a visit to the home of an ideal host, attentive to the guest s every need. Yet this ideal is hard to attain. The interaction between host and guest takes place within a context of social expectations which may be discrepant. Specifically, norms relating to the performance (Goffman, 1959) of the host and of the guest should be observed. The home, normally a private back region , is exposed to scrutiny and its occupants, particularly the woman presumed to be managing its presentation, are likely to be judged on...