For several years Inclusion Economics Nepal (IEN), a research group overseen by Yale University and the Nepali think tank Governance Lab, has been investigating a question high on the minds of Nepali women: what does it take to run for—and win—office?
The Nepali Constitution mandates quotas for women at every level of government. In some cases, such as ward committees, the system sets aside specific seats that only women can fill. In others, like mayorships, it requires parties to nominate a certain number of female candidates.
But a deep-rooted, patriarchal party system has undermined this groundbreaking regime. Following backroom dealmaking in Nepal’s 2022 general elections, the number of female mayors and deputy mayors declined by a fifth. IEN wants to empower women to overcome these obstacles and represent their villages, towns, and cities. In the longer term, Nepal needs to create an environment where parties and voters support women entering politics and acting as the voices of their communities. More inclusive politics makes for more inclusive policymaking, for women as well as men. But first, more Nepali women must start winning elections.
“There is clear demand from female politicians and aspiring female politicians for platforms that allow them to build solidarity and skills, ultimately becoming competent in elections and effective as service delivery-oriented representatives,” said Chandra Bhandari, IEN’s senior research manager. “Nepal is one of the world’s newest federal democracies, and the new constitution made inclusion one of its main promises.”
In August 2024, IEN convened focus groups of local female politicians from three of Nepal’s largest political parties: the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist). Gathering in the Chitwan Valley in Nepal’s southern grasslands, the focus groups comprised 35 women from 17 municipalities who had held, run for, or aspired to run for the country’s primary local offices, namely mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairperson, ward vice chairperson, and ward committee member.
Over several days IEN facilitated frank conversations with and between these women, aiming to understand what challenges Nepali female politicians face at the local level—and what resources they need to turn their candidacies into lasting victories.
Why Nepal Needs Female Politicians
Why should Nepal elect more women to office? Is it just representation for representation’s sake, a frequent refrain against gender quotas? No, the focus group participants said. Having more female officeholders would mean better policy for all Nepalis.
Back in 2019, an IEN report observed that local politicians like deputy mayors tended to prioritize women-relevant policies that would benefit their communities and Nepal as a whole, such as reducing child marriage and combating gender-based violence. Every one of the country’s diverse communities, then, would benefit from electing more female politicians to local government. But it is Nepal’s women who have the most to gain.
“I have noticed women in positions of power naturally align their policy priorities in a way that benefits other women,” argued a runner-up from the 2022 elections. “We feel this intrinsic desire to work for the betterment of women, even though we are leaders for both genders.”
But three obstacles stand in Nepali women’s way.
Challenge #1: Gender Norms
Beauties, build the thick skin
A number of the participants brought up gender norms, which have forced them to prioritize their roles as homemakers at the expense of their political ambitions.
“In my family and community, women are generally expected to stay at home and perform household chores,” said one woman who had won a post on a ward committee. “They are restricted in getting involved in outside activities. Therefore, it was not easy for me. I also had a small child to take care of. During the election, when I had to stay out late at night, I was always worried about getting scolded by my husband and in-laws.”
Running for office requires time and energy that many Nepali women lack. According to a 2018 survey, the average Nepali woman loses 18 hours a week to unpaid labor, most of it for childcare and chores. In fact, a 2013 report by the Johannesburg-based nonprofit ActionAid found that Nepali women worked 1.4 hours for every hour worked by Nepali men.
One participant in IEN’s focus groups, elected twice as a ward committee member, has opted against running again because campaigning left her too little time with her children. Another ward council member recounted that while she was campaigning, she had no one to look after her children or cattle. Successful candidates emphasized the necessity of support from their families—and their husbands in particular—for their decisions to pursue office.
Challenge #2: Money
Even when women can set aside time to campaign, they often lack the money necessary to take on better-financed male candidates. Focus group participants reported that campaigning for the position of ward council member, the lowest local office, could cost रु500,000 (about $3,300). To run for ward chairperson, a candidate might need रु5 million (about $33,000) or more. A candidate for that position recalled hearing that she might need as much as रु7 million (about $46,000) for a successful campaign. For reference, Nepalis’ average monthly household income has hovered around रु30 thousand (a little below $200).
A ward council member described campaign finance as a “major concern” for aspiring female candidates: “When the financial condition of the aspirant is strong, it automatically becomes easier for her to get on the ticket and win the election.”
“With the increasing cost of elections, female candidates are disproportionally affected due to their limited access to and control of financial resources,” observed a 2020 report on Nepal by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). “Consequently, many women are barred from entering politics due to the high cost of entry associated with campaigning.”
Candidates sometimes need cash even before they launch their campaigns, just to get nominated by their parties’ candidate-selection committees, many of which work like old boy networks.
“I went to the party office to receive the ticket I was promised,” said one participant. “But as soon as I entered, they asked me about the black briefcase [i.e., a bribe]. Everybody else had come there with a black briefcase; I hadn’t. I was denied the ticket.”
The complex dealmaking underpinning Nepal’s party politics contributes to keeping women off the campaign trail. The IFES report noted that candidate-selection committees weigh a woman’s ability to fund her campaign when deciding whether to nominate her.
“We don’t know how the mechanisms behind backdoor meetings work as well as males do,” said a female runner-up from the 2022 elections. “Precisely because we don’t know how to seek nomination, we end up not having the money required to run a campaign. Because males know this, committees will approve males because they trust males to earn their nomination.”
Challenge #3: Patriarchy and Political Machines
Participants highlighted the male-dominated leadership of Nepal’s top parties as one of the primary factors keeping female politicians from formalizing their candidacies.
“Party members are reluctant to give female politicians tickets for executive positions,” said one participant, “even resorting to violence in some instances.”
A 2025 study noted that many Nepali women decline to run for office because they fear gender-related violence. A 2022 report by U.N. Women suggested that political violence against female Nepali politicians might have increased as more women attained local office. Meanwhile, IEN has documented how during the 2022 elections, Nepal’s major parties collaborated at the local level to circumvent constitutional quotas on female candidates.
If a Nepali party wants to nominate candidates for mayor and deputy mayor in a given municipality, at least one of the nominees has to be a woman. But if a party only chooses to contest one of those positions, its lone nominee can be a man. The major parties used this loophole to evade gender quotas and guarantee victories for male nominees.
Here’s how it worked. A Congress cadre in one city might reach out to his Maoist counterpart and ask the Maoists to refrain from putting forward a candidate for the city’s deputy mayorship, leaving the field open for the Congress candidate. In exchange, the Congress official would offer to keep his party from contesting the city’s mayoral election. Congress voters might then back the Maoist candidate as well, clearing a path to victory for the Maoist candidate; while other parties might participate in the election, this implicit Congress-Maoist coalition would have an inherent advantage. In 2022, this kind of local dealmaking proliferated.
These local coalitions led to men occupying the posts of both mayor and deputy mayor in several cities, contributing to a 20 percent decline in the number of women in these positions.
“The coalitions pushed us back at least 10 years,” lamented one focus group participant. “Had there not been a coalition, there would have been a group of people who could have been the next generation of leaders. Now, there are none.”
Even women who manage to climb the party ranks may align themselves with the male old guard rather than with their fellow female politicians. A focus group participant offered the example of a female candidate from her party who received a single vote for her nomination from members of a candidate-selection committee that included two women. The second female member voted for a male candidate from her own clique in the party.
“Some women, when they reach a position of power, feel a sense of superiority and systematically prevent other women from rising,” said another participant.
A Potential Solution: Women’s Networks
Having identified the challenges, IEN is now studying how to overcome these obstacles and empower Nepali women to win nominations and elections. The focus groups explored one much-discussed idea: organizing female politicians into inter-party networks.
It was the Women’s Caucus, a 2000s-era multiparty alliance of female Nepali lawmakers, that secured the gender quotas enshrined in the Nepali Constitution. A patriarchal backlash kept the coalition from surviving beyond that key moment in history. But now women—both in politics and here at IEN—want to revive it, this time at the local level.
“This project is deeply personal to me,” said Aarya Shrestha, an IEN research associate involved in organizing the focus groups. “Having talked to many Nepalese female politicians, I understand how political spaces can feel inaccessible and exclusionary, even when formal systems are supposedly designed to include us. That’s why understanding what it takes to create spaces where women leaders can connect, share experiences, and support each other’s growth feels like quiet but necessary work, both for research and for representation.”
These women’s networks, like IEN’s focus groups, would bring together successful and aspiring female politicians from every major party. They could trade advice and discuss policies. Focus group participants expressed enthusiasm for the idea of reaching across the aisle to support female politicians regardless of party, whether from the cities or the countryside.
“We would invite women from rural areas, build up their capacities, and turn them into local leaders,” said a woman who was a runner-up in the 2022 elections. “We would learn about discriminatory practices and which women are in the greatest need.”
Knowledge sharing could go a long way. Participants reported that many Nepali women had no idea they could run for mayor, the most powerful municipal office. They thought Nepal only allowed female politicians to hold the position of deputy mayor, perhaps explaining why women constitute only 2 percent of the country’s mayors but the majority of its deputy mayors.
“While female representation in politics is increasing, it is not increasing in a meaningful way—women remain limited to deputy roles,” said Bhandari, the IEN research manager. “This is often due to parties’ misperception that women may not win elections or deliver services effectively. This perception can change if women build substantive networks where both party elites and citizens can observe their abilities—and see them deliver when elected.”
At the same time, all-women networks have a unique capacity to help female politicians navigate the gender norms that have held back many of their predecessors.
“Once sister organizations exist, it becomes easier for women to get out of the house,” said a focus group participant. “It is also a safe space to talk about the challenges we have faced, and we learn how to get ahead from other women as well.”
In 2026, women’s networks have a chance to demonstrate their potential.
“Women consistently recommend other women—not just from their own parties, but even their political competitors,” said Shrestha, the research associate. “This solidarity suggests that women approach politics differently, prioritizing collective advancement over zero-sum competition. To me, this isn’t just a methodological observation. It’s evidence of untapped potential that could reshape political participation if properly harnessed.”
The author is a recent graduate of the Master of Public Policy program at Yale University and a former intern with Inclusion Economics Nepal, where he supported an ongoing project to elect more Nepali women to local office. Before Yale, he spent four years in Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar and conducted fieldwork in Iraq, Myanmar, and South Sudan. He has also worked with the World Bank in Sri Lanka and the World Food Programme in India.
