Women in Nepal: The Gender Landscape and its Evolution —2006-2016

Abstract

This essay intends to familiarize the reader with issues related to the status and evolution of the position of women in Nepal. It discusses women's power struggles between 2006 and 2016, the backlash they have faced, and how they have maintained the gains won over decades. It examines the history of the women's movement in Nepal from 1996 to 2006, the political and social landscape, and its impact on the discourse around gender equality in the country. It argues that the history of the women's movement during the early 2000s has been one of struggle, some achievements, and several setbacks. Still, the contribution of women has not been adequately recognized. The essay highlights the unfulfilled promises of various political parties and the Maoist movement, which practically pushed women back into their original position domestically, socially, and politically. The paper argues that patriarchal structures affect women's position in both the private sphere and public institutions. The status of women in Nepal, like for women the world over, includes women's work within the intimate domestic sphere, where problems like intimate partner violence and other forms of domestic subjugation. Issues range from the household to the public spheres, and women activists have grappled with systemic sexual harassment at the workplace, as well as molestation and rape on the streets and in other social spaces. The essay also analyses the misogyny faced by the women's movement, including delegitimization propelled by centralized power structures, contestation within the struggle, and the 'NGOization' of the feminist movement. The essay acknowledges some hard-won successes and achievements of the feminist movement in Nepal, which have changed the laws and policies for women's rights. The article recommends a paradigm shift for the feminist movement in Nepal towards creating various discussion forums where opposing interest groups can come together to forge meaningful solidarities on feminist principles and to build legitimacy, which has the utmost significance in advancing social equity and cooperation among participants of the movement. Hopefully, academia could integrate the Nepali feminist movement into their courses and support ethnographical documentation.