Transforming geographies of tourism and gender : Exploring women's livelihood strategies and practices within tourism in Latvia

Abstract: This thesis explores different geographies of tourism, gender, work and liveli­hood in post-socialist Latvia. The study puts focus on the overall transforma­tion process and the reshaping of the tourism sector, in how Latvia is reimag­ined both as a nation state and as a tourism destination. One central aim is to analyse the transformation process as genderised, and how existing gender identi­ties in general and femininities more specifically are being transformed and mirrored within tourism. The thesis first contain an analysis of how Latvian tourism-mar­ket­ing carries genderised meanings and identities, based on three interrelated ‘geog­raphies’ as part of the transforming ‘national common space’: geogra­phies of neo-nationalism, geographies of Euro­peanisation and geographies of relic-communism. These hold certain imaginations and conceptions of space and place, and in­clude aims and priorities of the transition process. Secondly, focus is placed on the chang­ing conditions for women’s livelihood within rural tourism in the Cēsis district, and spa/health tourism in Jūrmala. The thesis has mainly a quali­tative approach, including semi-structured interviews and text analysis, but the case studies also comprise a survey. The thesis illustrates how tourism becomes an arena for reclaiming a Latvian national identity rooted in a pre-Soviet past, while also manifesting a Western European identity, and negotiating the remains of the controversial Soviet heritage. This process reveals, for example, traditional feminised features of the nation state, portraying women as the ‘mothers’ of the nation. Two case studies of female employees and entrepreneurs within rural tourism and spa/health tourism also show how women negotiate different ideals of femininities, in­cluding ‘traditional’, ‘Western’ and ‘socialist’ ideals, through their everyday live­lihood practices within both the public and the private sphere. Their negotia­tions for a more independent liveli­hood are also affected by structural factors, such as wages and taxes, but also by the local socio-cultural context and related gender identities, including class, family structure, age and ethnicity.