A study of the employment of women in the hotel and catering industry indicated that the industry employs nearly 17 percent of the entire paid female work force in the United Kingdom. Women constitute 75 percent of the industry's work force, and 47 percent of its managers are women. Women's position in the industry is characterized by their disproportionate concentration in part-time and operative level jobs. Even though many of the women studied have had experience at higher levels in other industries, they have not always been able to transfer their skills successfully. College-trained women and men also exhibit different progress in their first years of employment in the industry. The reason for this appears to be a complex blend of traditional sex stereotyping, beliefs about customers' preferences, job seekers' ideas, and managers' beliefs about women's motivations and which sex is appropriate for which job. In the subsidiary sectors of the industry (where the main business is not providing accommodation or food but where these activities take place on the premises--e.g., school meals), women appear relatively more successful. This may reflect their predominance, but it may also reflect the higher incidence of employment policies actively seeking equal opportunities for women. The final chapter describes the Manpower Services Commission's (MSC) Graduate Development Scheme, which was designed to encourage the training and development of women managers in the commercial sectors of the hotel and catering industry. Appendixes include a bibliography of sources, statistical tables, information on women in the United Kingdom's work force, descriptions of the methodologies of the studies reviewed for this report, and brief descriptions of projects being carried out as part of the MSC/Training Board Graduate Development Scheme. (MN)