Women entrepreneurs in Nepal: what prevents them from leading the sector?

Abstract

Entrepreneurship for women is often seen as a journey out of poverty and a march towards equality. Studies have proven that entrepreneurship, in the form of small and medium sized enterprises, can indeed empower women and through time, fundamentally transform power relations within a society, making it a place where women can lead. However, in the past, women's entrepreneurship in much of the developing world has gone little beyond informal business ventures which ensure daily survival for women and their families. In Nepal, embedded structural and socio-cultural constraints challenge women entrepreneurs and make it hard for them to realise their potential as leaders in business. This article suggests policy measures, business and management training, and the promotion of entrepreneurial networking systems, as potential ways to empower women entrepreneurs and create leadership opportunities, in the hopes of bringing women into the mainstream business sector in Nepal.

Notes

1. www.gdrc.org/icm/wind/uis-wind.html (last checked August 2008).

2. www.microcreditsummit.org/press/opening.html (last checked August 2008).

3. http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_NPL.html (last checked August 2008).

4. The Communist Party Nepal (Maoist) or CPN(M) launched the ‘People's War’ as a protest against the monarchy on 13 February 1996. Over the following ten years the insurgency, led by the Maoists, took the lives for more than 13,000 people. The war officially ended on 21 November 2006 when King Gyanendra vowed to give up power after massive public protests. Suggested background reading on the Maoist party and the ‘People's War’: Himalayan People's War: Nepal's Maoist Rebellion (2004), edited by Michael Hutt, Indiana University Press.

5. Ganesan (2003) describes surrogate entrepreneurship as a category of women entrepreneurs wherein the business is registered in the name of women, but men in their family are operating it. The men are not allowed to register their business if they are already fully employed, so to circumvent this rule, they register their business in the name of their unemployed daughters, wives, and mothers.

6. The One Window Policy adopted in 1992 by the Nepalese government was aimed at supporting the private business sector so as to contribute to the national economy. For example, cottage industries were to have tax exemptions for diversifying and for updating equipment and technology, as well as tax breaks for export earnings. However, the women interviewed reported that the policy was not being implemented as stated.

7. www.undp.org.np/uploads/publication/2007101711382099.pdf (last checked August 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brenda Bushell

Brenda Bushell is an associate professor at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, Japan, teaching courses in environment literacy, and English education. She is pursuing research on gender issues in Nepal with support from the Japanese Ministry of Education