Throughout the history of Nepal, women have fought to achieve rights for themselves. Real and meaningful gains have been made in legal, social, cultural and political sectors. Yet with each gain made by women, strategic decisions have been made by the male political elite to exclude, marginalize and devalue the worth of women and their bodies to retain control masculinized power. The three papers in this panel take three different issues – citizenship, education and laws relating to sexual violence – to map out the manner in which specific gains made by women are structured within the patriarchal priorities of high caste, male, Hindu, state elites. These papers serve to highlight the manner in which modern, and institutionalized patriarchy, the dominant gender order that it legitimizes and perpetuates, and the inequality it sustains, has historically and continues today, to limit change in Nepal to more egalitarian relations between women and men even as women continue to struggle for equal rights.