Anniversary special: Quality, not quota

 There is not a single country that has been built by men alone. Right around the world, women have played a big role in eco­nomic development. It’s no different in Nepal. Time has thus come for Nepali women to step forward and show the way. If we look around, we see women are making it to leader­ship positions in different areas of the economy. However, in the field of economics as an academic discipline, we see only a few women leaders. Students think twice before they take up this subject as it is technical and difficult too. I see that students from science background do well in economics. You need to feel comfortable with mathematics and statistics to suc­ceed in economics.

One major ailment of our aca­demia is that we are degree-oriented rather than knowledge-oriented. But for women, securing a good degree is not enough. We need to be active in social activities as well, which will give us exposure and help build good network. But it is not easy to balance studies and social activities.

Many of our female colleagues report they have to do household chores before coming to university. Our families are still traditional, and women are expected to limit themselves to certain roles. It’s high time that women felt confident of their ability and took up leadership roles out of their homes. A sup­portive environment is needed. If a woman gets respite from household duties, she can certainly do well in her career. We do have some women economists. But they are yet to come to the forefront at the policy level. In my case, I have been asso­ciated with the Central Department of Economics for long, and now I have got the opportunity to lead it as head of department. There was some skepticism about a woman getting the leadership position. But I requested my colleagues to give me a chance to prove myself.

Just like men, women may also fail. But in my assessment, 90 percent of women in leadership roles have done well. Therefore, we should not think that women cannot take a lead­ership position. But being a career woman means your challenge is to balance your career and your home. We are expected to keep the house in order as well.

My department is one of the oldest and biggest in Tribhu­van University. It was estab­lished in 1960; I joined as assistant professor in 1999. When I joined, my senior colleagues used to say that female professors won’t stay here for long. “But you please stay and don’t leave the department,” they often suggested.

When I joined, I was the only woman in the faculty. Some senior female colleagues joined later. They have already retired due to the age bar of 63. Now there is only one woman professor besides me in the 16-member faculty.

Apart from the academia, there is women’s participation in other sectors as well. They are more engaged in informal economy, which is a largely neglected area. It hasn’t received the attention it deserves. We should count it as among major components in both population and economic censuses. Again, women have to play dual roles— as homemakers and as breadwinners. They have shown their competence in both. Women have already shown they can excel not only at national level but also internationally. But their con­tribution to the informal sector cannot be overlooked. We need to translate it into monetary terms. The state is responsible to make it count.

Recently, I saw a thesis related to street vendors, which showed that more women are working as street vendors than are men. There could be various reasons but the number of such women is high. They generate income. We should not forget their contribu­tion to the national economy.

As men are going abroad for jobs these days, women stay back and contribute to economic activities. The number of financial institu­tions and cooperatives is increasing, and they prioritize loans to women. However, there hasn’t been much study on how much these women contribute to the national economy.

On the political front, too, women are well represented. There is reser­vation at the entry level, not at the higher levels. I believe women need to be competitive than seek reser­vations. They should come through open competition and prove their worth instead of choosing the path of reservation. The reservation sys­tem can be enforced for some time, not always. When we seek higher positions, we should be capable. In some cases, women coming from reservation quota have not been able to perform well. We need qual­ified women with dashing personal­ity to inspire others.

The author heads the Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University

(As narrated to Kamal Dev Bhattarai)