Article Perceptions of women academics regarding work–life balance: A Pakistan case Sadaf Naz Department of Education, Hazara University, Pakistan Shawana Fazal Department of Education, Hazara University, Pakistan Muhammad Ilyas Khan Department of Education, Hazara University, Pakistan Abstract Work–life balance in the context of this paper means keeping a balance between home and workplace responsibilities and roles. In more traditional societies, such as in Pakistan, working women often find it difficult to keep a balance between their responsibilities in the workplace and their home responsibilities. This paper is based on findings from a qualitative research study that explored the perceptions of working women regarding their home–work responsibilities and how these impact their lives. Data were collected from 10 female academics working in a university in the north of Pakistan, using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings reveal that most women academics find it challenging to keep a balance between their home and workplace responsibilities. Participants faced a range of problems both at home and in the workplace that impacted their life in both places. These problems included lack of support and facilities at home and in the workplace. These problems, however, did not seem to deter them from carrying on with their work–home responsibilities. Some of the strategies the participants adopted to keep this balance included separating and scheduling home–work time, securing support of the family and utilising time in the workplace more productively. The downside of this, however, seemed to be that these women academics found little time for themselves as leisure time or time entirely devoted to their own mental and physical wellbeing. The research has important implications for working women, their employers, families and policy makers in Pakistan and other societies with similar contexts. Keywords Women academics, Pakistan, work–life balance, family, workplace Introduction and background Work–life balance in academia has been associated with greater interest, involvement and better performance on the part of teachers and academicians. Lack of this balance, on the other hand, has been associated with frustration and loss of mental peace at home and in the workplace (Saeed and Farooqi, 2014). Greenhaus et al. (2003) argue that lack of work–life balance among academics often impacts other aspects of their life besides work performance and productivity. Lakshmi and Gopinath (2013) provide an interesting categorisation of work–life balance. They argue that this balance could be considered from three different angles: (i) balancing time devoted to home and work responsibilities; (ii) involvement balance, which shows the level of com- mitment to work and home or other responsibilities; (iii) satisfaction balance, which indicates the level of satisfac- tion with work in comparison to other responsibilities (Lakshmi and Gopinath, 2013). Keeping a work–life balance for women, who are increasingly getting more share of the workforce around the world, is often a tricky issue. This is particularly the case in developing countries, where traditional structures are not responsive in terms of providing assistance to women workers for keeping a balance between home and workplace responsibilities. Social and cultural values put more demands on women in more traditional societies (Gru ¨nenfelder, 2013). An important aspect that adds to women’s home-based responsibilities is the presence of extended families, where women have to do household chores on a larger scale (Rabbani et al., 2008). Pakistan is a developing country that has one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world Corresponding author: Sadaf Naz, Department of Education, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan. E-mail: sadafhu@yahoo.com Management in Education 1–6 ª 2017 British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS) Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0892020617696633 journals.sagepub.com/home/mie MiE