Gendered social capital and women’s empowerment in community-based tourism at the urban–rural interface of Hà Nội, Việt Nam

This study examines how gendered social capital shapes women’s empowerment in community-based tourism (CBT) at Hà Nội’s urban–rural interface, conceptualising peri-urban CBT as a city-region tourism system shaped by urban visitor flows, market intermediation, cultural consumption and local governance rather than as a peripheral rural livelihood setting. Adopting a feminist mixed-methods design, the study integrates 21 semi-structured interviews, participant observation, ego-network mapping and 258 valid survey responses through joint displays and mechanism-based integration. The findings show that bonding ties facilitate women’s entry into CBT through trust, kinship and community support but may also reproduce unpaid care, household obligation and local gatekeeping. Bridging ties expand market access, whereas linking ties determine whether women gain institutional voice, decision-making authority and equitable benefit-sharing. Building on these findings, the study develops the Gendered Conversion Capacity of Social Capital (GCCSC) as a context-dependent explanatory mechanism that distinguishes the possession of social capital from women’s capacity to convert bonding, bridging and linking ties into authority over tourism resources, decisions and benefits. The findings further demonstrate that this conversion depends on household relations, market brokerage and institutional governance rather than participation alone. Practically, the study supports gender-responsive CBT governance through transparent benefit-sharing, accountable brokerage, women’s decision-making, digital inclusion and recognition of women’s cultural labour. By positioning Hà Nội’s peri-urban CBT clusters as city-region tourism spaces beyond the historic core, the study contributes to urban tourism research by explaining how governance conditions shape the conversion of gendered social capital into women’s empowerment.