LEADING IN THE SHADOWS: INVISIBLE WORK AND EMOTIONAL LABOUR OF WOMEN IN ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Women academic administrators in higher education often sustain the moral and emotional fabric of universities through invisible work and emotional labour that remain unacknowledged within formal leadership discourses. This qualitative study explores how women in Pakistani universities perform, negotiate, and derive meaning from this hidden labour. Grounded in the theoretical lenses of emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983), feminist ethics of care (Noddings, 2003), and postcolonial feminism (Mohanty, 2003), the study investigates how care, emotion, and power intersect to shape women’s leadership experiences in male-dominated academic environments. Eighteen women administrators from public and private sector universities across Punjab and Sindh participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase approach. Five major themes emerged: Performing Calm, Invisible Support Systems, Emotional Double Bind, Care as Resistance, and Institutional Silence. Findings reveal that women’s leadership is characterized by strategic emotional regulation, relational diplomacy, and moral attentiveness that sustain institutional harmony but remain institutionally unrecognized. Emotional labour, while exhausting, also functions as a form of agency, allowing women to lead through empathy, trust, and moral influence rather than positional authority. The study argues that invisible emotional work constitutes the affective infrastructure of higher education in Pakistan. Recognizing this labour as legitimate leadership practice requires a paradigm shift in institutional evaluation systems, leadership development programs, and policy frameworks. Such acknowledgment not only advances gender equity in leadership but also strengthens the emotional ecology of universities.