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.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. 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. 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. 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). 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. Today, Nepalese women are defying cultural traditions, and are becoming community leaders, environmentalists politicians and business owners. In October 2015, Nepal elected its first female president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari.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. 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.
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.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 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. 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. Existing laws are inadequate to deal with sexual offenses and Nepal has no law to deal with sexual harassment. Nepalese women are more vulnerable to rape and domestic abuse, and young women risk being trafficked to the brothels of India. 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.
Law
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal of 1990 contained a guarantee that no person should be discriminated against on the basis of sex, and, in 1991, the government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
A 1975 amendment to the civil code introduced the first clear provision on property rights for women. It ruled that a woman who remained unmarried up to 35 years of age had a right to inherit property. In 2002, a bill was passed granting women the right to inherit property from birth, specifying however that at the time of marriage any property must be returned to the parent's family, with the wife obtaining equal right to her husband's property instead. The 2002 bill included also other provisions on women's rights, in particular granting a woman the right to divorce under certain conditions, a legalization of abortion, and increased punishments for rapists.Women's Property Right Movement and Achievement of the 11th Amendment of Civil Code, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Nepal Office The Interim Constitution 2063 of Nepal has some provisions to uplift the status of women. The constitution says that a daughter can get equal parental property as son if she asks, a woman can divorce her husband and get 50% of his property, a child can acquire citizenship in the name of his/her mother, in every governmental office a 20% quota for female must be preserved, and 33% of seats are preserved in parliament for women. These efforts are done so that women can be in the mainstream politics of the country and be socially and economically strong.
Nepal outlawed marital rape in 2006.
In February 2021, In an effort to combat sex trafficking, The Department of Immigration proposed a policy requiring women under 40 to have a letter and permission from family to travel abroad. Human right advocates believe the proposal discriminates based on gender and age. Those critical of the policy believe it would force women into undocumented employment, actually increasing the risk of trafficking and abuse.
Gender roles
In Nepal, the historical gender roles, spaces and stereotypes of the ‘public’ male breadwinner (provider) and ‘private’ female care-giver are espoused even under changing situations. This is due to the association of household status with women's non-work that has been perpetuated by the circumstances of women having to offer their labor in the paid market work-spheres under extreme economic stress and poverty.Preeti Rustagi, 2016. "Situation of Women in South Asia: Some Dimensions," Working Papers id:10949, eSocialSciences. Men are predominantly the ones who interact with the outside world while women's major sphere of operation is within the households. It is said that Nepali girls and women work for more than boys and men, spending 25 percent to 50 percent more time on households tasks, economic and agricultural activities. Yet, due to the nature of their work which is intertwined with household activities at times and is often unpaid, on the one hand, and the flawed definition of economic activity, on the other hand, women's economic participation remains statistically invisible. The role played by women in the care sector, predominantly their reproductive work, bearing, rearing, nurturing children and household maintenance are activities that fall outside the national accounting systems. While these activities are crucial for household members well-being and effective participation in different spheres – economic, social and political, they continue to remain non-economic activities. By virtue of women performing these roles which are statistically not counted as economic and hence not monetarily valued, women's roles and their contribution is assigned low status.
In the Nepali context, the empowerment and development of women is inextricably bound to the dominant Hindu social structure, which influences all aspects of social, cultural, and economic life. This structure assigns women restricted roles, which most often involve household and family responsibilities. Nepali women have internalized this system and this makes it difficult for them to envision themselves in roles outside the home. Women also harm each other by passively accepting societal attitudes. In Nepal, women's words are thought to be only half true and are not treated seriously. Surprisingly, both men and women accept this societal attitude. Women cannot expect men to take them and their demands seriously if they themselves do not take each other seriously. Women's passive acceptance of their limited social status has resulted in the perpetuation of gender discrimination. Many women believe that this is the way it has always been and that this is the way it will always be. In the home, Nepali women are thought to be a source of life, but they are also compelled to slave away for male family members. Women are treated like seasonal workers and are sent away when they are no longer needed, often because they have failed to produce sons. Yet biology tell us gender is determined by the father's sperm. Social attitudes will not change as long as women believe them to be true and as long as parents choose to raise their children in homes in which gender discrimination is the norm.
In some ethnic groups and social classes, women's roles in the economy goes beyond the domestic sphere as when Thakali women are Involved In the hotel and catering business, or when educated Gurung women have positions in the private and public sectors or when women from laboring households and from the so-called occupational castes work as field laborers or porters for others. It has been noted that women in the more orthodox Hindu communities who are largely confined to domestic and subsistence production display a much less significant role in major household economy decision than those in the Tibeto-Bunnan communities where women participate actively in the market economy. Some of the daughters and sisters of the rich family have jobs such as school teachers, social workers and the like. Both boys and girls from the well-off families get chance to go to school. On the contrary, very few cases of school enrollment are found among the poor families. Because of reading and writing skills of the well-off families, the local level government and semi- government jobs fall in their hands. In the poor households, ploughing, roofing, climbing the trees to lop the fodder, threshing rice, sowing, making bamboo baskets and bamboo mattress, manufacturing agricultural implements, etc. are the major tasks of the males whereas transplanting millet and paddy, grinding maize and millet, husking and winnowing of crops, cooking rice and washing utensils are the female's works. Digging, wedding, harvesting and carrying load are common for both sexes. Mothers usually nurse the infants. Mothers have major role for infants' caring which is also supported by grandmother, sister or elder children.Pokharel, Binod. Gender Roles and Activities Among the Rural Poor Households: Case Studies from Hill Villages, 2011.
Dowry