Uncovering the Nexus of Leadership and Motivation for Women in the South Africa Tourism Sector: Empowering the Rainbow Nation

Despite the female-driven tourism sector, significant gender bias limits women's leadership roles. In fast-growing African economies like Libya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, women still face gender disparities. These disparities are often amplified by cultural norms that do not recognise women as equals. In South Africa, tourism mirrors the gender disparities of other African countries, with women earning less than men in all industries. The study aims to explore the nature of the relationships between the Leadership of Women in Tourism (WiT), Motivation of WiT, and Empowerment of WiT. It provides an opportunity to better understand how these factors interact and affect the empowerment of women in the tourism sector. The study focused on women employed in various management positions within the South African tourism sector, representing all nine provinces. A bivariate analysis, including both a Pearson product-moment correlation and Spearman rho, was performed to examine the relationships between the three constructs. This study offers a methodological contribution by using statistical methods to create new constructs and conduct a comprehensive investigation into the relationships among new latent variables. This study fills a gap in WiT literature by exploring construct relationships within the context of the South African tourism sector.