For the past week, a male colleague has been sending me links to articles on women’s influence in the hospitality business. “It seems to be a trend with all of these articles happening at the same time,” he said in his email.

“Breaking the glass ceiling” and “Women travelers influence trends” were the headlines on two stories that accompanied a special report and profiles of women executives on hotelnewsnow.com.

A blog “Is there equality in the cockpit?” popped up on bbc.com, discussing an incident in late May when a passenger on Brazil’s Trip Airlines was removed from the plane after he refused to fly in a plane piloted by a woman (though, as the story points out, his country is run by a woman).

Meanwhile, online rants about Successful Meetings’ list of top meetings industry influencers—which was heavily weighted with men—continue, albeit at a slower pace.

Conworld.net reported on a survey from TeamViewer, based on the provider’s experience hosting online meetings in the workplace, that found women are at the forefront of technology in the American workplace. When asked about the characteristics most important for an online meeting host to have, women proved much more demanding than men in almost every category. “These findings demonstrate that women are on the cutting edge of technology and are having a big impact on the way the modern office is evolving,” says Holger Felgner, general manager at TeamViewer.

For those women (and men) who have been in male-dominated businesses for decades, much of the discussion and many of the “trends” sound like old news. Whether you’ve heard the story before or think gender differences are irrelevant, as do some of the women profiled on hotelnews.com, it’s still interesting to ponder the impact of women in the workplace, especially in a field like meeting planning where women outnumber men and continue to gain influence along with skills. Meanwhile, on the supplier side, including industry organizations and destination managers, men continue to dominate in leadership roles.

Do you think there is a glass ceiling for women in the meetings industry? Have you experienced setbacks based on your gender? We’d like to hear from you.

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