8 - Gender on the Bench Matters for Sustainable Development

Summary

The feminisation of the legal profession has become a policy priority in developed and developing nations. Although an increasing number of female students have chosen to pursue law education in the South Asian nations like Nepal, the state of women representation in the judiciary remains unsatisfactory. For example, less than one-tenth of advocates as well as judges in Nepal are women. Drawing on the construct of motility – the capacity of actors to be mobile in social settings – this chapter asks: 'what insights can be generated from the current status of women in the Nepalese judiciary?’ The chapter adopts an exploratory research approach in order to analyse primary data (six interviews with retired, sitting and aspiring judges) and publicly available secondary data (key policy documents, media reports). The findings reveal three key themes: (a) barriers to enter judiciary (i.e. glass door), (b) challenges in maneuvering the career ladder (i.e. path of broken glass) and (c) the lack of opportunities to occupy key leadership positions (i.e. glass ceiling). Based on the findings, the paper suggests two policy propositions that can be considered to foster women representation in judiciary in developing countries like Nepal.