Emotional Labour in a Cyberabad Shopping Mall: A Feminist Understanding of New Forms of Labour.

The article examines the intersection of gender and evolving labor forms through Arlie Hochschild's concept of emotional labour, focusing on retail shop-floor employees in Hyderabad's HITEC city, also known as Cyberabad. It highlights how emotional and aesthetic labour are manufactured and reinforced via employee training in shopping malls, which are conceptualized as workplaces rather than mere consumption spaces. The study reveals that these labor practices perpetuate traditional gender stereotypes and the masculine gaze, requiring employees—especially women—to perform prescribed emotional expressions and maintain strict grooming standards as part of their job. Additionally, the article discusses how English language proficiency and soft skills training contribute to workplace hierarchies, while also providing limited economic opportunities and upward mobility for young women within a neoliberal service economy.