The Invisible Labour Tax On Working Women And Why Leadership Needs To Recognise It

This article was written by By Fazeela Gopalani, Partner at EY and leader of EY Academy MENA

There is the woman I am at work. And there is the woman I am at home. They are both me, yet they are often expected to behave as if the rules, the rewards and even the responsibilities are the same in both worlds. From my vantage point as a leader, mentor and mother, I’ve come to recognise a truth many women feel but few organisations truly name, and that is that women are still carrying an invisible labour tax at work and at home and this rarely shows up in performance reviews, promotions or leadership conversations.

In corporate cultures around the world and here in the MENA region, women are disproportionately relied upon to manage people’s feelings, to resolve friction behind the scenes, to mentor informally and to uphold the social and emotional fabric of teams. These forms of emotional and organisational labour are not theoretical; they are lived experience.

Women absorb complexity and tension that others never see, yet this work is rarely rewarded as leadership contribution.

At home, the load is different but no less real. Planning meals and schedules, remembering appointments, tending to children’s emotional needs, caring for ageing parents. This mental load persists alongside our paid work and is rarely shared, seldom acknowledged and almost never counted. This kind of invisible labour tax isn’t a personal failing or a private burden. It’s a systemic blind spot, one that organisations and leaders need to see with clarity.

//Why this matters in leadership conversations

Across the global EY organisation, almost half of our people are women and we continuously work to cultivate inclusive environments where diverse experiences are valued. Recent *survey data within EY shows that 84% of respondents feel they can be themselves at work and 83% feel included and supported by colleagues.

Yet representation does not automatically erase hidden costs.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the highest echelons of leadership.

In broader global research, **women hold just 28% of roles in fields such as STEM, a space where both technical and leadership skills matter increasingly.

Organisations may celebrate representation metrics, but without acknowledging the invisible cultural and emotional labour that enables those workplaces to function, we risk reinforcing inequities in subtler, more persistent ways.

//The MENA context: progress and paradoxes

Here in the UAE and the wider MENA region, strides are being made on gender parity. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, the UAE climbed five places in global rankings and remains at the top of gender equality within MENA. This reflects increasing participation of women in leadership and emerging fields such as AI and new economy sectors.

Despite this progress, the day-to-day experience of many women still includes invisible expectations: to lead with empathy, to defuse conflict quietly, to offer mentorship without sponsorship and to absorb extra tasks that keep teams feeling cohesive but don’t count toward career mobility. These contributions are real, measurable in burnout scores and attrition rates, but they rarely find space in formal leadership criteria.

//Reframing leadership to account for the unseen work

This is not a piece about blame. It’s a call to broaden how we recognise leadership and contribution, both in organisations and within our communities.

Firstly, leaders need to look beyond traditional metrics. Leadership is not only about hitting targets or closing deals; it’s about shaping environments where people feel psychologically safe, understood and encouraged to bring their whole selves to work. That includes valuing emotional labour, not as a soft add-on, but as a necessary component of effective teamwork and innovation.

Secondly, organisations need honest dialogue and data. Tracking demographic representation is important, but we also need to measure experience. Who is being asked to do the cultural “housework”? Who absorbs emotional overload? Who steps in to mentor others without formal pathways or recognition? These questions matter because they influence retention, performance and progression.

Finally, we need to normalise boundary conversations, both in the boardroom and at the dinner table. Women should not feel they must be different people in different roles; our leadership is most effective when we bring our whole humanity to whatever we do.

For many of us, being a leader means juggling visible and invisible responsibilities every day.

If organisations are serious about developing leaders for the future, they must recognise that leadership isn’t only what’s on the org chart. It’s also what’s in the room, the heart and the unspoken moments that make teams and families thrive.

When we begin to truly see what women carry, we don’t just create more inclusive workplaces, we create more sustainable ones.

*Source: EY Belonging Barometer 4.0 (2025).

**Source: World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report 2024.