Long before formal meetings begin and after they end, there is another layer of work quietly unfolding—preparing food, caring for children, checking on family members, sustaining emotional connections. This labor rarely appears in conference programs, yet it forms the invisible infrastructure that allows participation to happen at all.
For many women, leadership is never detached from care. It is embedded within it. As ICAS 2026 approaches, an important question surfaces: what kinds of work actually sustain women’s leadership, and why are they so often overlooked?
Beyond Formal Economies
Mainstream economic frameworks tend to prioritize measurable outputs—income, productivity, growth. Within these metrics, large portions of women’s labor remain undervalued or entirely invisible. Care work, community organizing, and informal support systems are often excluded from what counts as “the economy.”
Yet, these forms of labor are foundational. They sustain households, stabilize communities, and enable participation in broader social and political life. Without them, formal systems would struggle to function. ICAS 2026 provides an opportunity to bring these hidden economies into focus—not as peripheral concerns, but as central to understanding leadership and sustainability.
Care as Leadership
Reframing care as a form of leadership challenges dominant assumptions about power and authority. Leadership is often associated with visibility, decision-making, and institutional roles. Care, by contrast, is seen as private, routine, and secondary.
But care involves complex forms of knowledge—anticipating needs, managing resources, navigating relationships, and responding to crises. These are not passive activities; they require skill, judgment, and resilience. When viewed through this lens, care becomes a mode of leadership that operates differently, yet no less significantly.
The Burden of Multiplicity
At the same time, the integration of care and leadership can produce strain. Many women navigate multiple roles simultaneously, often without adequate support. The expectation to excel in professional, social, and domestic spheres can lead to exhaustion and, in some cases, burnout.
This raises important questions for ICAS 2026. How can leadership models be reimagined to acknowledge and redistribute care responsibilities? What forms of institutional support are necessary to sustain women’s participation without overburdening them? Addressing these issues requires moving beyond celebration toward structural change.
Community Economies and Resilience
Across different contexts, women have developed community-based economic practices that blur the boundaries between care and production. Cooperative models, informal savings groups, and mutual aid networks are examples of systems that prioritize collective wellbeing over individual gain.
These practices often emerge in response to necessity, but they also offer alternative visions of economic life. They emphasize interdependence, sustainability, and resilience—values that align closely with the broader themes of ICAS 2026. Recognizing and learning from these models can expand how we think about economic participation and leadership.
Aisyiyah’s Praxis of Care
Aisyiyah’s long-standing engagement in education, healthcare, and social welfare reflects an institutionalization of care as a public commitment. Its programs demonstrate that care can be organized, scaled, and integrated into broader systems of social support.
Within the framework of Risalah Perempuan Berkemajuan, care is not confined to the private sphere; it is part of a larger ethical project. Women are encouraged to engage in transformative action that bridges personal responsibility and collective wellbeing. This perspective offers a way to connect everyday practices with broader visions of social change.
Toward Recognition and Redistribution
As ICAS 2026 approaches, the challenge is not only to recognize the value of care, but to rethink how it is distributed. Visibility alone is insufficient if it is not accompanied by changes in how responsibilities are shared and supported.
What would it mean to design systems—within institutions, communities, and networks—that acknowledge care as essential work? How might leadership be redefined to include, rather than marginalize, these contributions?
The answers are not straightforward. But by bringing the hidden economy of care into the conversation, ICAS 2026 can open space for a more inclusive and sustainable understanding of leadership—one that reflects the realities of women’s lives, rather than abstract ideals.
