Performing Wellness, Concealing Pain: A Gendered Continuum of Challenges for Women with Lupus in the Workplace

Armand Bam^1,2*Joy Lulema¹

• ¹University of Stellenbosch Business School, Stellenbosch, South Africa
• ²Stellenbosch University Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences, Stellenbosch, South Africa

What does it mean to stay ambitious when your body betrays you unpredictably and invisibly? For women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), success at work often depends on concealing pain, managing disclosure, and performing wellness in environments that reward composure over care. Yet work is not a neutral arena; it is structured by ableist and gendered norms that privilege stability, productivity, and presence, making episodic illness especially disruptive. This study introduces the Continuum of Embodied Challenges, a conceptual framework, that maps the layered tensions professional women face in navigating illness, identity, and institutional expectations. Based on narrative inquiry with eight participants, the findings show that delayed diagnosis is not only clinical but epistemic, eroding trust in one's own body. Participants recounted experiences of bodily disruption and resisted the label of "disabled," even when functionally impaired. Their stories reveal the emotional and physical labour required to remain credible in settings that privilege predictability and presence. By centring invisibility, gender, and resistance, the study advances feminist disability perspectives and calls for institutional models that recognise the complexity of episodic illness.