Call for papers: Understanding the Impact of Episodic Disabilities, Chronic and Long-Term Health Conditions on Women’s Work Across Cultures and National Contexts

2025-07-07

Understanding the Impact of Episodic Disabilities, Chronic and Long-Term Health Conditions on Women’s Work Across Cultures and National Contexts

Gemma Bend (G.L.Bend@hud.ac.uk)

Astrid Huopalainen (astrid.huopalainen@aalto.fi)

Humera Manzoor (humera@kust.edu.pk)

Vincenza Priola (Cinzia.Priola@open.ac.uk)

Victoria Williams (v.williams@surrey.ac.uk)

Experiences and impact of episodic disabilities and long-term health conditions on women’s working lives across cultures and national contexts remain an under-explored area of research in management and organisation studies (MOS) and sociology of work (Cheung et al., 2025). Episodic disabilities refer to those health conditions that are characterised by unpredictable periods of wellness and illness, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, long Covid or mental health disorders (Anderson et al., 2025).  These are distinct from long-term and chronic health conditions, which are long-lasting, require ongoing management and can be disabling at times but are not generally considered disabilities; among these are, for example, heart disease, some forms of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and endometriosis (Beatty and Joffe, 2006). Chronic conditions are often not responsive to treatments and increase the risk of (in)visible impairments (Samwiri Nkambule and Msiska, 2024). Many of these health conditions disproportionately affect women (e.g. endometriosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, multiple sclerosis) and have a significant impact on their lives, including their work experiences, career, opportunities, and trajectories.

While Equality, Diversity and Inclusion researchers have paid some attention to understanding disabilities in the workplace (e.g. Bend and Priola, 2018 and 2023; Fattori, Napolitano and Ripetta, 2025; Fattori, 2022; Fielden, Moore and Bend, 2020; Foster and Hirst, 2022; Jammaers, Zanoni and Hardonk, 2016, Jammaers and Zanoni, 2020; Sang, Calvard, and Remnant, 2022), episodic disabilities and long-term health conditions tend to remain largely absent from this literature. The reason is that they are often invisible, variable and stigmatised. Impairments, symptoms and lived experiences can vary among individuals with the same chronic condition (Kjaer and Amsterdam, 2020). Furthermore, the unpredictable trajectory of relapses, recovery and remissions makes it difficult even for the chronically ill person to figure out how to live well with the condition (Samwiri Nkambule and Msiska, 2024). Similarly, it is less problematic for researchers to study visible disabilities instead of invisible and variable conditions; consequently, the former has been the main focus in disability studies (Sang, Richards, and Marks, 2016).

When we consider these aspects in relation to the workplace, the uncertainty and the insidious nature of episodic disabilities can make it arbitrary for co-workers and managers to understand the nature and support requirements for the chronic condition (Taylor et al., 2003). For the same reasons indicated above, organisational policies and support practices scarcely engage with episodic disabilities and with chronic health conditions, which tend to be experienced by managers as ‘disruptions’ to daily operations and something that needs to be controlled (Gewurtz and Kirsh, 2009). Correspondingly, line managers are often at a loss when employees seek support for managing their work alongside a health condition. Some may also trivialise and discredit the grief, loss and pain associated with episodic disabilities and chronic conditions (Vickers, 2001).

The perceived cause and the symptoms attached to an episodic disability, or a chronic, long-term health condition, affect the extent to which it is stigmatised; therefore, the social stigma attached to a long-term condition varies with the nature of the ailment, and it is heightened in the case of gendered conditions such as endometriosis and fibromyalgia (Williams, 2025; Williams et al., forthcoming). Consequently, women can suffer in silence, seeking to demonstrate commitment to their work and organisation and to meet the expectations of the myths of ‘ideal worker’ (Acker, 1990; Kelly, Ammons, Chermack, and Moen, 2010; Reid, 2015; Kjaer and Amsterdam, 2020) and ‘valuable employee’ (Oldfield, MacEachen, MacNeill, and Kirsh, 2018) while sometimes feeling lonely and in isolation (Macdonald et al., 2018). In addition, women’s experiences of disability and chronic conditions are embedded in gendered knowledge and practices that can vary greatly across cultures (Goodley, 2013; King, Nicole, and Watling, 2023; Ned, 2022; Sarker, 2025).

The special issue invites scholars to engage with theoretical insights emerging from feminist theory, critical disability studies, diversity management and intersectionality to advance work and organisation studies (from perspectives from management, sociology or work, human resource management, organisational psychology) and challenge ableist norms in organisations to reframe how we understand episodic disability, chronic and long-term health conditions in relation to the gendering of work, bodies at work, social justice, ethics of care, organisation of work, careers, flexible working, employee value, commitment and power. We particularly welcome theoretical and empirical papers that adopts a cross-cultural lens and/or a (post)colonial perspective and explore how constructions of gender, health, disability and stigma, among others, vary across cultural and national contexts (Groce, 1997; Manchanda and Thakur, 2021; Shuttleworth and Kasnitz, 2006; Sultana and Manzoor, 2025).

We invite scholars to submit theoretical and empirical contributions and to experiment with creative methodologies that are faithful to feminist commitment to reflexivity, ethics, inclusive research processes and are disruptive of orthodox research practices. We welcome contributions that critically address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Feminisms, episodic disability and/or chronic health conditions.
  • Research methodologies and studying and writing about gendered episodic disabilities and/or long-term health conditions.
  • How episodic disabilities or chronic health conditions shape women’s work in relation to the intersections between paid labour and reproductive labour.
  • How episodic disabilities or chronic health conditions shape women’s career choices, progression, or withdrawal across sectors and geographies.
  • How cultural, national and institutional contexts affect women’s experiences of work as they navigate the effects of episodic disabilities or chronic health conditions.
  • How intersecting identities (e.g. race, class, age, sexuality, transgender, etc.) compound the experience of episodic disabilities or chronic health conditions at work.
  • Autobiographical narratives of navigating episodic disabilities or chronic health conditions in the context of work.
  • Philosophical perspectives on episodic disabilities and work.
  • Gendering episodic disability; disability inclusion or exclusion in organisations and management (e.g. ableism and gender oppression).
  • Alternative organisations and alternative employment, and women living with episodic disabilities and/or chronic health conditions.
  • Individual, managerial and organisational resistance to normativity and ableism.
  • Gendered leadership and episodic disabilities, chronic and long-term health conditions.
  • Engaging in body work across time and space.
  • (Re)constructing, (re)negotiating) and (re)contesting work lives, meaningful selves and identities when living with episodic disabilities and chronic conditions.
  • Technology, technoableism and episodic disabilities

 

Submitting your paper

Papers may be submitted electronically between the dates of 14th September 2026 and 23rd October 2026 at: Submissions | puntOorg International Journal.

Papers should be no more than 10,000 words in length, excluding references, and will be double-blind reviewed following the journal’s standard review process. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the guidelines published on the journal’s website. When feasible, manuscripts submitted in languages other than English will be assigned to reviewers proficient in those languages. Nonetheless, an accompanying English translation is required to make the work accessible to a wider audience of reviewers and readers.

A paper development workshop will be held online in early 2026. Participation in the workshop will not be a guarantee of acceptance of the paper for the thematic issue, and neither is the workshop a requirement for consideration of a paper for the thematic issue. Details of the workshop will be available on the journal pages, by contacting the journal at info@puntoorginternationaljournal.org or the guest editors. For further information and informal conversations about this special issue, please contact the guest editors:

Gemma Bend, G.L.Bend@hud.ac.uk

Astrid Huopalainen, astrid.huopalainen@aalto.fi

Humera Manzoor, humera@kust.edu.pk

Vincenza Priola, Cinzia.Priola@open.ac.uk

Victoria Williams, v.williams@surrey.ac.uk

 

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