Representations of unity and diversity of women in Panchayat and Post-Panchayat Nepal

Abstract

This paper analyses the changes in the ways in which the diversity of women in Nepal has been conceived and represented from the Panchayat Democracy era in the 1960s to the current period of constitution-writing for a new federated state of Nepal. The various forms of diversity attributed to women—cultural differentiation, hierarchical differentiation, quantitative differentiation and substantive differentiation—have been and are being constructed in juxtaposition to various forms of unity—gender, universal, national unification and the ‘Third World woman’ in need of development. These varied configurations of unity–diversity have different implications for the women's movement and its quest to redress the historical subordination, oppression and exclusion that have been suffered by Nepali women.