Sexual Harassment and Reproduction of Patriarchy in Public Space in Nepal.
Date
2017-12
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Abstract
This dissertation examines women’s lived experience of sexual harassment in public transport
and streets in Kathmandu, Nepal, paying attention to how women survive such harassment on a
daily basis. It also documents how both men and women make sense of harassment, and their
masculine and feminine how it impacts their identities. Then the study goes into the details of
social and cultural constraints that set limitations for Nepali women in fighting sexual
harassment. The study site for this research is Kathmandu – the largest metropolitan city of
Nepal. It employs a mixed-method approach and uses data from both women and men in order to
compare accounts and perceptions of sexual harassment. Questionnaire survey, semi-structured
interviews and focus group interviews are used to collect data. These data are complemented by
field notes and observations from places in Kathmandu where sexual harassment was most likely
to take place.
The central argument of this dissertation is that sexual harassment in public space in
Nepal constitutes and reproduces dominant norms of patriarchy that are also observed in other
social contexts such as in families and workplaces. I argue that men and women learn dominance
and submission from homes, schools, peers, and society, and the norms of dominant patriarchy
are maintained through sexual harassment. Power and privilege for Nepali men is invisibly
reproduced through cultural socialization, and as a result, men are largely unaware of themselves
as explicitly gendered. Sexual harassment in Kathmandu’s public space creates a physical and
ideological separation of sexes and diminishes the possibility of public space as being suitable
for women. Despite the significant economic and political gains women have made in Nepali
society, men continue to use violence to dominate and control women in public space.
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Nepal, patriarchy, masculinity, social support, public space
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