Back নেপালৰ নাৰী Assamese Dones del Nepal Catalan زنان در نپال Persian Condition des femmes au Népal French Condizione della donna in Nepal Italian ქალები ნეპალში Georgian नेपालमा महिलाको अवस्था Nepali Kvinner i Nepal NB نیپال وچ خواتین PNB Женщины в Непале Russian
 | This article's lead section may be too long. (September 2021) |
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| General Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Maternal mortality (per 100,000) | 170 (2010) |
| Women in parliament | 33.2% (2012) |
| Women over 25 with secondary education | 17.9% (2010) |
| Women in labour force | 80.4% (2011) |
| Gender Inequality Index[1] | |
| Value | 0.452 (2021) |
| Rank | 113th out of 191 |
| Global Gender Gap Index[2] | |
| Value | 0.692 (2022) |
| Rank | 96th out of 146 |
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| Women in society |
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The status of women in Nepal has varied throughout history. In the early 1990s, like in some other Asian countries, women in Nepal were generally subordinate to men in virtually every aspect of life. Historically, Nepal has been a predominantly patriarchal society where women are generally subordinate to men. Men were considered to be the leader of the family and superior to women. Also, social norms and values were biased in favor of men. This strong bias in favor of sons in society meant that daughters were discriminated against from birth and did not have equal opportunities to achieve all aspects of development.[3] Daughters were deprived of many privileges, including rights, education, healthcare, parental property rights, social status, last rites of dead parents, and were thought to be other's property and liabilities.[4] In the past century, there has been a dramatic positive change in the role and status of women in Nepal, reducing gender inequality. While the 1990 Constitution guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, caste, religion, or sex, the modernization of society, along with increased education of the general population, have also played an important role in promoting gender equality.[5] The roles of women have changed in various ways in the modern Nepalese society.
Despite the difficult post-conflict transitional context, today, Nepal is not only rapidly progressing towards economic development, it is also achieving targets for poverty and hunger, universal primary education, child mortality, maternal health and gender equality and women's empowerment. Women's representation in the Constituent Assembly has dramatically increased to 29% in the November 2013 elections from 2.9% in 1991 (in the then parliament).[6] Women are now taking leadership roles and participating in decision making at all levels. There has been increased government involvement to increase accountability and monitoring of gender equality commitments and to establish and strengthen linkages between the normative and operational aspects of gender equality and women's empowerment.[6] Today, Nepalese women are defying cultural traditions, and are becoming community leaders, environmentalists politicians and business owners.[7] In October 2015, Nepal elected its first female president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari.[8] Other famous Nepali women include CNN Hero of the Year winners Anuradha Koirala, Pushpa Basnet, first female to climb Mt. Everest Pasang Lamu Sherpa, international award-winning athletes Mira Rai, Phupu Lhamu Khatri, and the first female chief justice Sushila Karki.[9]
Although roles and status of women in modern Nepalese society has undergone a massive transformation and their rights have been secured by the constitution, enforcement outside the few major cities has been a lax.[10] Given that Nepalese society is heavily influenced from the Hindu system of beliefs emphasizing patrilineal descent and a patrifocal residence system, implementing certain aspects of these laws have been a challenge.[5] The rugged, mountainous topography adds to this issue. In these remote places, gender disparity still exists, women have limited control, are restricted to household work, deprived of education, discriminated based on caste, and have poor healthcare access.[6] Existing laws are inadequate to deal with sexual offenses and Nepal has no law to deal with sexual harassment.[10] Nepalese women are more vulnerable to rape and domestic abuse, and young women risk being trafficked to the brothels of India.[8] There exist also many superstitions and taboos related to caste and mensuration leading to unequal treatment of women. In these cases, they are not allowed to touch drinking water, have to live away from the house secluded, and cannot perform/attend religious activities, while menstruating.[11]
- ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^ Bhattarai, Arjun Kumar. “How rural women experience disempowered in Nepal : an empirical study on women experience as the main obstacles to their disempowerment in their everyday lives”. Universitetet i Nordland, 2014.
- ^ Kumar, Bachchan; Mittra, Sangh, eds. (2004). Encyclopaedia of women in South Asia. Delhi, India: Kalpaz Pub. ISBN 8178351870. OCLC 54697784.
- ^ a b Meena., Acharya (1999). Women in Nepal. Mathema, Padma., Acharya, Birbhadra., Asian Development Bank. Programs Department (West), Asian Development Bank. Office of Environment and Social Development. [Philippines]: Asian Development Bank, Programs Dept. West and Office of Environment and Social Development. ISBN 9715612687. OCLC 48393329.
- ^ a b c "Nepal Country Page - UN Women Asia Pacific". UN Women | Asia and the Pacific. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
- ^ "Community leaders, politicians and business owners: are women leading a cultural shift in Nepal?". New Internationalist. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
- ^ a b Swift, Richard. "Bidhya Devi Bhandari." New Internationalist, Jan.-Feb. 2016, p. 9. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A439271254/AONE?u=txshracd2548&sid=AONE&xid=f0bdc85b. Accessed 16 July 2018.
- ^ "7 Women Who Have Made History in Nepal". Women LEAD. 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
- ^ a b World Bank. 2006. Unequal citizens : gender, caste and ethnic exclusion in Nepal : Summary (English). Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/201971468061735968/Summary
- ^ "Banished for bleeding - the women of Nepal forced to move out of their home when they have their period". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-07-17.