ABSTRACT
This chapter starts Part III that turns to women in the context of broader Nepali society. The present chapter attempts to delineate (modes of) presence of ‘Nepali women’ in the country's decades of democratizing exercises, based not on ethnographic materials but on the reading of women-related discourse publicized in Nepali society. The questions are whether, how much, and in what way, ‘women’ have been part of that process, and how their marginalization or exclusion has been, if partially, overcome over time. Although the realities on the ground lived out by millions of Nepali women are infinitely diverse, the chapter's discussion shows how ‘Nepali women’ have been sidelined to occupy the peripheral position in Nepal's public sphere. Although the aspired-for-change is yet to have accomplished and minority women have been prone to be sidelined even within Nepali women's movement, their persistent struggles have been shifting the tide.
