Women academics in Pakistani higher education institutions: who really is the Big Bad Wolf?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate the under-examined relationships between Pakistani women academic leaders and their female counterparts without leadership roles. We delve into the controversial assumptions that Pakistani women academic leaders enact patriarchal feminism that involves replicating masculinist practices of exclusion and thereby become a substitute Big Bad Wolf for their women coworkers. Data were collected via a questionnaire titled ‘Women in Leadership Positions in Pakistani Academia’ which was disseminated among women academics in 18 Pakistani higher educational institutions. This data was used to disentangle the contradictions in women academics’ attitudes toward their female colleagues in leadership positions and vice versa as well as the challenges framing their working relationships. We then postulate Luce Irigaray’s idea of the all-inclusive ‘female whole’ as a counterfoil to patriarchal feminism and to frame a feminine model of leadership that embraces the maternal instinct because it does not entail a weakening of women academic leaders nor a disregard for discipline and authority.

KEYWORDS:

• Patriarchal feminism
• female whole
• women academic leadership
• Pakistani higher education institutions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Recognized Universities (hec.gov.pk).

2. A male-centric outlook that places men in a position of superiority.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Asma Mansoor

Asma Mansoor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan and has been teaching there since 2006. She has a PhD degree in English Literature. Her PhD dissertation is entitled Eco-performativity in Multivalent Textual Ecologies. Her research papers have been published in reputable international journals including Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, Curriculum Inquiry, Asiatic, New Writing: The International Journal for the Theory and Practice of Creative Writing, South Asian Review and Palgrave Communications.

Muneera Bano

Dr. Muneera Bano has over 15 years of experience in academic teaching, research, supervision, and leadership. She graduated with a PhD in software engineering from University of Technology, Sydney in 2015, and is currently a senior lecturer in the School of IT at Deakin University. She has a prominent profile in advocacy of Women in STEM. She has served as ‘Superstar of STEM 2019-2021’ announced by Science Technology Australia and was announced as the overall winner of ‘under-40 most influential Asian-Australian leader’ in 2019. She has been recognized by the Government of Pakistan as an under-40 Pakistani-Australian leader in ‘Science and Innovation’ in the ‘Pakistan Foreign Minister’s Honors’ List 2021’ for her extraordinary leadership in science and innovation.