The social, cultural, economic and political strategies extending women’s territory by encroaching on patriarchal embeddedness in tourism in Nepal

Abstract

Globally, there is significant growth in women exploring entrepreneurship to disrupt poverty, notwithstanding they face more serious challenges when compared to male counterparts. For women entrepreneurs in Nepal, not only are they marginalised in their tourism business endeavours, they are also highly regulated by caste and class, and patriarchal inequality. Using a critical theoretical framework within a qualitative grounded theory approach, we revealed ways in which Nepali women subvert the institutionalised gender and power structures. The critical perspective engages with socially constructed layers of historical, political, cultural, economic and gender values that have been embedded over time. Sixteen Nepali women entrepreneurs in tourism were interviewed between 2014 and 2019. Patriarchal embeddedness in social, business and tourism environments are overcome by Nepali women through micro enterprise development. Women are engaging in female domains such as homestay, but also infiltrating male domains such as trekking and tour-guiding. Nepali women’s political strategies are subtle and understated. The capacity of Nepali women to encroach on patriarchy through tourism shows that women have adapted to redress socially constructed imbalances. Tourism provided opportunities to find their agency in a world that has been largely silenced. Women’s skills and roles are now infiltrating ingrained patriarchy.