Women Entrepreneurship in Traditional Micro Enterprises in Nepal (A Case: Newar Community in Kathmandu Valley)

The concept of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship has been in discussion since the 1980s with modern business economics assuming gender in terms of “gendered” politics of knowledge to neutralize and objectify the term entrepreneur and entrepreneurship from masculine connotation. Ahl (The Making of the Female Entrepreneur: A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women’s Entrepreneurship. Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University. JIBS Dissertation Series No. 015, 2002), has divided women entrepreneurs into five broad thematic areas. Traditionally and in the present-day also, Newar communities are classified into various castes based on their corresponding traditional occupations. Women of Newar community in Kathmandu Valley are believed to be equally involved in traditional, businesses along with their husbands, so that in their absence they could manage the business. Thirteen out of fourty-one listed castes and occupations have been selected and interviewed with the entrepreneurs of Lalitpur and Kathmandu to identify the contribution of women in the production process analyzing the workflow. The result shows that Newar women’s involvement in the process of business operation in terms of percentage is more than 52.5% on average. The recent urban growth in the Kathmandu Valley has directly and indirectly impacted the growth of traditional occupations of the Newar communities. Women are also seeking for the paid opportunities. As a result, women are shifting to non-traditional which were previously considered male-oriented careers from traditional female-oriented jobs. However, despite the problems, while assuming the ownership of the traditional micro enterprises, Newar women are found coping with conflicting demands (balancing home and business responsibilities) and surviving in a hostile environment with their valuable naturalized female skills. A gender-based growth model could be devised for understanding the growth of women-owned enterprises of the Newar women entrepreneurship in the Kathmandu Valley.