‘Campus mothers’ and academic meritocracy: ibuism as gendered governance in Indonesian higher education

This article examines how ibuism operates within Indonesian universities shaped by meritocratic performance regimes. Drawing on a qualitative multi-site study involving in-depth interviews with 18 women academics from public, private, and Islamic universities, it explores how maternal gender norms shape academic labour and professional evaluation. The findings show that women academics are frequently positioned as ibu kampus (campus mothers), expected to provide care, emotional support, and institutional service beyond formal academic responsibilities. These expectations become embedded within everyday university governance, influencing workload allocation and recognition. At the same time, universities increasingly privilege research productivity, publication metrics, and competitive funding as indicators of excellence. The intersection of these demands produces a meritocratic–moral tension in which women academics are expected to be both caring and highly productive. The article argues that ibuism functions as a form of gendered governance and contributes a Global South perspective to feminist critiques of academic meritocracy.