Amina Singh Simone de Beauvoir had famously claimed that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman. From Beauvoir's claim Butler inferred that then, the notion of "woman" itself is a becoming in process and hence opens to intervention and resignification. Hence, I take the concept of "woman" not as a fixed category or passive construction of gender identity (like readymade clothes that we just put on whether it fits or not, or even if it makes us uncomfortable) but as a continuously ongoing process, negotiated by the physical, the cultural and material conditions of one's existence. To be recognized as an intelligible subject one may have to adopt the signifying practices of gender, i.e. the socially and culturally prescribed notions of womanhood. But I ask then, if gender…

Kristie Drucza My PhD research used a qualitative methodology known as grounded theory while applying a political economy lens to the situation of social assistance provision in Nepal. Seventy interviews were completed with a diverse range of key informants predominantly residing in Kathmandu. These included development partners, NGOs, GoN, unions, private sector, academics, journalists and political parties. The district of Sarlahi was chosen for beneficiary interviews because it has low human development indicators and because it covers the Madhesh region and as such the people residing there have a high degree of exclusion. Twenty one beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in three different villages were interviewed, including the Village Development Committee (VDC) secretaries. Additional interviews were completed with district-residing GoN officials and local political parties. The research found that in all villages,…

Tulasi Acharya Disability is built on the social and cultural environments. They shape our understanding and perception of what it means to be disabled and how it is different from the concept of able body. The idea of disability is gendered, and it clashes with cultural ideas about gender in specific ways. Particularly, in the case of women, as they are already considered “the second sex” or “the other, female disability is even more prevalent and transparent. This ideology of disability regarding ability preserves and authenticates what it means to be normal and this definition limits women to certain “normal” standards. Regarding this socially and culturally-based concept of disability, Garland-Thomson writes, disability provides for the able-bodied “cultural capital to those who can claim such status, [and] who can reside within…

Rajendra Pradhan It is widely believed by many Nepalis as well as Nepali and foreign scholars, e.g. Joanna Watkins (1996) and Kathryn March (2002), that the indigenous-nationalities (adivasi-janajatis) are more egalitarian, including in their gender relations, than other communities, especially the notoriously hierarchical and inegalitarian Hindus.  It is thus possible to speak of hegemonic inegalitarianism and hegemonic egalitarianism among these different communities. At the same time, however, anthropologists have demonstrated a wide variety of gender relations and patriarchy among the indigenous-nationalities and that these relations have changed over the past two centuries due to international, national as well as local causes.  Following Seira Tamang, it is therefore more accurate to characterize these diverse communities not in terms of single patriarchy but multiple and changing patriarchies. From a different register, it…

Yashas Vaidya Child undernutrition remains one of most of the most challenging aspects of the nutrition transition in the lower and middle-income countries of the developing world. Among U.N. and MDG regions, South Asia  (classified  as  South  Central  Asia  or  Southern  Asia)  is  one  those  severally  affected  by child undernutrition, and in the case of several indicators even more than Sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, and The World Bank 2012). In the last couple of decades other regions, including Africa, have made progress in reducing undernutrition—measured by indicators such  as  stunting,  underweight  and  wasting.  However,  Nepal,  like  other  parts  of  South  Asia,  still demonstrates  high rates  of undernutrition. While several explanations have been proposed, there is no consensus on the specific reasons for the persistence of…

Lokranjan Parajuli Nepal’s first university, Tribhuvan University, was established in 1959, which is pretty well known fact to those who are interested in Nepal’s education system. What however is not known to the most is the earlier effort(s) to establish a university in Nepal. Surprised many would perhaps be if one were to say that the first of such effort was made during the (late) Rana era—a period known for its effort to control education rather than propagating it among the masses. The last among the Rana rulers, Mohan Shamsher, in his sindooryatra (accession to throne) speech announced (in May 1948) that a university would be established in Nepal. The announcement becomes more surprising given the restrictions (re)imposed during his reign in accessing and propagating education for the masses as…

Sambriddhi Kharel There are only a few studies of social movement from gender perspectives, probably because it is assumed that the movements take into consideration the interests of both men and women or that movements are gender neutral. However, social movements are often framed such that the specific interests and demands of women are ignored, sidelined or assumed to be the same as men's. The few studies that use gendered perspectives have shown that women’s resistance calls attention to the theoretical issue of women’s interests and identities and around which they mobilize. Maxine Molyneux (1986), for example, identifies three types of ‘women’s interests’ that is common in feminist literature: (1) women’s interests (a highly contentious one because of women’s different positions in society, depending on class, ethnicity and sexual affiliation),…

Anjam Singh Women’s empowerment as a concept had its roots in the Third world feminist movement that advocated for collective action against gender subordination and unequal power relations. During late 1980s, the empowerment discourse which till then was in the margins of development and limited to feminists’ realm entered the mainstream development thinking and practice. In the recent times, it is increasingly being used in mainstream development discourse and practice as a poverty reduction and gender equality strategy. This “development” focused women’s empowerment discourse also gained ground in Nepal post-1990 and remains widely cemented in the development practice. However, there has been very little conceptual scrutiny about the term within the development sector and at the same time there is a growing concern about the effectiveness of such approaches in…

Mona Shrestha Adhikari The paper attempts to analyse how gendered work gets constructed in the hotels, resorts and casinos drawing on a feminist research conducted in six establishments – two samples from each category of five star hotels, deluxe resorts and casinos. The research uses mixed methods of 21 questionnaires, 65 semi-structured interviews of male and female workers, managers, male family members and policy experts and observations made at some at the sample establishments. The study uses the concept of occupational segregation to unpack the gender division of labour by analysing vertical and horizontal segregation and shows how gendering occurs at the structural level of the establishments. The author argues that gendered work is constructed by three distinct but related dimensions, namely: a) the gender division of labour; b) the…