Social control in women’s pursuit of secondary education in Kathmandu, Nepal: ‘if I can’t sign my name, I can’t maintain my privacy.’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women’s secondary schools in Nepal are improving non-traditional student’s educational access. Few studies examine the challenges faced by women returning to attend secondary education. Using Risman’s gender structure theory, we demonstrate the dual burden of social control experienced by women attending secondary school in Nepal. Engaging in qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with married women students, we find that women face challenges due to a lack of basic literacy, including an inability to: independently venture outside the household, maintain the privacy of their bank accounts, use mobile phones, or become employed. Women feel the pressure of social control more harshly when they lack functional literacy. By recognizing the challenges women face, our study contributes to the literature emphasizing education’s role in women’s empowerment. Our study highlights how the intersection of caste and gender influences women’s access to education and how they experience social control. Additionally, we demonstrate how cultural processes lag behind material change enabling the persistence of the gender structure.