Breaking the silence: three Pakistani women academics’ accounts of being bullied

Abstract

Women in Pakistan’s higher education face barriers that silence their voices from reporting experiences of being bullied by colleagues and superiors. This situation contradicts universities’ role as houses of learning and agents of progressively improving culture and society. This group autoethnography presents three accounts by women academics challenging this taboo against speaking out. Without the silence being repeatedly broken, this toxic social phenomenon continues. Studies of women’s personal stories of being ostracised and bullied complement the emerging quantitative literature about bullying against women academics in higher education institutions. The present narratives about being the targets of bullying individuals are framed within national and international literature. Chronicling such bullying episodes increases recognition of personal, family, and career trauma for women academics. More qualitative accounts will further document the conduct by which women are ostracised, disrespected, and burdened with unfair extra work. Naming such behaviors overcomes the current silence, which leaves this conduct unacknowledged.