Gender equity and emotional labour in the workplace: an ethnographic study in Romania

The fifteenth Evidence Bits issue is based on the study: Isirabahenda, G., Marina, L. and Mucea B. N. (2026) Gender equity and emotional labour in the workplace: an ethnographic study. Frontiers in Sociology. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2026.1742870.

The paper investigates the structural and interactional expectations placed on female university graduates employed in Romanian call centres informed by two years of ethnographic fieldwork, spanning June 2021 to June 2024, which included participatory observation and semi-structured interviews in call centres. By exploring dynamics of emotional labour, gendered occupational segregation and structural mechanisms of inequality, the study adds qualitative nuance to an existing body of literature regarding gender inequality in the work place.

Policy Recommendations

Dismantle Vertical Segregation in Leadership: Women fill 72% of entry-level CSR positions while men hold 73% of management positions. Policies should formalise promotion tracks, ensuring that female employees can access leadership roles and avoid being trapped in frontline positions.

Recognising and Compensating for Emotional Labour: Emotional management is often seen as a “natural” feminine trait rather than a professional skill. To address this, practices should treat emotional labour as a technical competency by explicitly including it in job descriptions, evaluating it during performance reviews, and factoring it into compensation structures.

Reform Recruitment to Break Closed Networks: Reliance on internal referrals, which account for 75% of hires, privileges those with strong social capital and can exclude women and marginalised groups. Organisations should diversify recruitment channels and implement merit-based hiring to reduce gender hierarchies.