Life Behind the Lobby by Dhingra Pawan;

Author:Dhingra, Pawan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

A male motel owner in Indiana folds laundry while his wife is out.

Husbands did not refuse to perform backstage tasks. They often did. But typically it was when the wife could not. For example, a male owner of an independent motel gave a common response when asked who cleaned the motel rooms:

We both. What ever is required, someone does it. If someone is out, other person does it. Cannot wait until that person gets back.

Although both front-stage and backstage work are essential to running a business, the former carried more status. Husbands appreciated their wives’ contributions but occasionally downplayed their role in the motels. For example, one immigrant owner subconsciously compared his wife with a maid when discussing her role in the motel:

She gives suggestions. She says things about the room. We have to replace this, replace that. Bed sheets are torn; pillows are flattened; light is out. The maid also tells. I make the decisions regarding the motel. The decision is mine. My wife is more involved with the house.

The fact that women’s labor was seen as an extension of their domestic duties limited husbands’ impressions of them as equals. Nor did women bring home a separate paycheck.7

Even when women played active roles in running the business, they rarely had the same level of responsibility as men (Dhaliwal 1998).8 This is a trend AAHOA has sought to change. According to the organization, wives need to know how to run the business in case their husbands no longer can. (In discussions of female moteliers within AAHOA and elsewhere, they are assumed to have husbands rather than work independently or have female partners.) One female immigrant motelier active in AAHOA pushed for more education-oriented sessions for women rather than women’s speakers on fashion or cooking, as has been common at the conventions. She noted the difference between the management side and the entrepreneurial side of motels. The former involves the day-to-day tasks of the motel, such as scheduling staff, attending to the rooms, and checking inventory. The latter involves investigating new businesses, considering major changes, thinking more broadly of the market, and so on. She said,

I think a lot of women probably do have an input into larger decisions that are being made. It’s not like they’re totally out of it, but, I don’t know, maybe that’s not the focus right now. . . . You know, right now it’s still a man’s world when it comes to that, I think. . . . Give [women] the skills to become entrepreneurs. Give them the skills to read a PNL statement, to read a Star Report. If you want to build a hotel, how do you do it, where do you start, what is the process? You know, that kind of information, so that the women can become involved in being entrepreneurs and developing a business.

One owner of a higher-middle-budget franchise had a larger role in her business than most women I interviewed. She said, “If I don’t know the house keeping,

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