ABSTRACT This article problematizes informal mentoring as a feminist praxis in Pakistani academia, highlighting the potential for exploitative control by some women academic leaders. We contend that informal mentoring is susceptible to misuse at the hands of self-serving Queen Bee academics to reinforce their influence over their women colleagues which can entail suppressing them. This challenges the notion that mentoring can be used as an empowering feminist praxis. Through a self-designed questionnaire administered to academic leaders in 55 universities in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, followed by focused group discussions with early, mid-career and senior academics, we expose contradictions between the benign self-perceptions of women academic leaders and the experiences of their coworkers. These contradictions reveal an absence of genuine empathy and support extended by women academic leaders and detrimental internal hierarchies among women, thus hindering the collective growth of women. This study also exposes abusive forms of exploitation of early and mid-career academics by their women line managers to stifle competition and sustain disempowering asymmetries. To combat these issues, we propose collaborative mentoring built on equal respect and freedom to dissent ensured through well-regulated mentoring programs overseen by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission to preempt abuse within mentor–mentee relationships.