Political Empowerment in Community-Based Tourism: Leadership and Power Strategies of Women in Yunguilla, Ecuador

Daniela Ortega-Vásconez; Pilar Espeso-Molinero

doi:10.25145/j.pasos.2026.24.074

Authors

Daniela Ortega-Vásconez Universidad de Alicante https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4556-4064
Pitu Universidad de Alicante https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5876-3906

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2026.24.074

Keywords:

Rural tourism, Resistance, Collaborative leadership, Feminism, Agency

Abstract

Women's political empowerment in community-based tourism (CBT) is particularly challenging. This research explores women's political empowerment, focusing on the dynamics of women's influence, leadership, and the subtle forms of resistance within a CBT project in Ecuador. Based on ethnographic research (2021–2025) that combines participant observation, informal conversations, and in-depth interviews, the study analyses how women's participation in community organisations fosters political empowerment processes, their outcomes, and the resistance strategies employed to challenge male-dominated power structures. Findings reveal that women's political empowerment in CBT is not limited to holding official positions but depends on their participation in both public and private spheres. Women employ subtle strategies to challenge existing norms, thereby leading their own political empowerment processes through self-organisation, collaboration, and support networks

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Editor & editorial board: profiles
Academic society: PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural
Publisher: Instituto Universitario de Investigación Social y Turismo. Universidad de La Laguna (España) - Instituto Universitario da Maia ISMAI (Portugal)

Author Biographies

Daniela Ortega-Vásconez, Universidad de Alicante

Daniela Ortega-Vásconez is Professor-investigator specializing in community-based tourism with a gender perspective, community-based tourism and resilience, sustainable tourism, and rural tourism. She has published in leading academic journals. She participates as an investigator in Ecuadorian case studies within the project "Local-based tourism and rural crisis," funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación - Spain, and the project "Intercultural digital narratives for the preservation of ancestral knowledge, environmental sustainability, and gender equity," funded by the Universidad Nacional de Educación UNAE - Ecuador

Pitu, Universidad de Alicante

Pilar Espeso-Molinero is Professor of Social Anthropology and Academic Secretary of the Department of Contemporary Humanities at the University of Alicante - Spain. She has published in leading academic journals. Her research focuses on the study of tourism as a tool for economic, social and cultural development, with a participatory and decolonial perspective.

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