The future for the rural woman of Nepal is far from bright and promising. The majority of these overworked women are uneducated and under privileged. They sorely lack self-confidence and due to the attitude of the prevailing cultural society do not consider themselves on par with men. They carry the weight of the caste system, the pressure of the dowry system, and the guilt of being a burden to their family.

In too many cases these women may be victims of both physical and mental abuse. Many women are bound to lives that are detrimental to their well being and that of their children, perpetuating a cycle of ignorance and dependence. Deprived of an education and discriminated against in the job market, the rural woman has little choice but to work in the fields. Her future options are bleak.
“Women face discrimination, particularly in rural areas, where religious and cultural tradition, lack of education, and ignorance of the law remain severe impediments to their exercise of basic rights such as the right to vote or to hold property in their own names.’
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, February 26, 1999.
Many women in Nepal lack nutrition, education, employment, and health not only because resources are scarce, but also because traditional social structures deny them the power to make basic decisions about the course of their lives. It is a common practice in rural areas for women to be completely confined to the domains of household chores and raising children. Traditional views have kept rural women from formal education and the careers to which it leads. In the rural areas, only 14 percent of women are literate, compared to 44 percent of men.

Low levels of education form a vicious cycle with a lack of decision-making power, each reinforcing the other to depress the social position of rural women. Without degrees or significant training, these women struggle to compete in the strained job markets of Nepal. They often seek income in the informal sector, where wages are low or nonexistent. As a result, rural women lack the leisure time and self-sufficiency to represent themselves in their local communities, let alone the national government.

While women in urban areas face a slightly better situation, even they face daily discrimination and have little say in policy development. And they make up only a tiny fragment of the population; more than 85 percent of Nepalese women live outside cities, entangled by social and economic systems that too often leave them uneducated and underprivileged.

“Till today, the women are thought of as ornaments of the house in theory and slaves in practice. When they are girls they are not allowed to attend schools, where as boys are privileged in this regard.”
Kathmandu Post

Several years ago, Lucky Chetri, founder of Empowering Women of Nepal Association, came across a group of unhappy and frightened single women travelers who had been seriously mistreated by their male guides. She was busy running a restaurant and a lodge in Pokhara, but upon hearing these stories she quickly decided to improve the system for the good of both foreign and Nepali women. Less than one year later, she started her women’s trekking guide service, the first of its kind in Nepal. Success did not come easily; in a society that considers women weak, she had problems at the start convincing potential business partners that her guides could do the job.

Lucky says: “We wish to provide an alternative for women who yearn to break out of the role that society dictates. Uneducated women with the hunger to learn, under privileged women with the desire to better their lives, and all women who strive for independence find refuge here. These are strong women, who given the chance and a little support, will change the world.”

Read more at: http://www.3sistersadventure.com/EWN/Womeninnepal/