Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry

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dc.contributor.author Shakya, Mallika
dc.date.accessioned 2024-04-19T07:15:58Z
dc.date.issued 2024
dc.description.abstract The late 20th century saw a phenomenal integration of the production and consumption of clothing between the Global North and the Global South. While global integration of mass manufactured garments has been discussed at length, this paper investigates the gender subjectivities within artisanal production of globally-oriented ethnic wear within the garment value chain. This ethnographic case study focuses on the women entrepreneurs animating the large-scale Nepali garment subcluster. This subcluster, with its origins in fringe tourism and development expatriatism became so integrated with its global counterparts that some entrepreneurs became prominent national names. The market conflated female and male designers and entrepreneurs. In this process of symbiotic absorption, and the dominance of garment production in the national economy, female entrepreneurs saw their careers sidelined and their contributions overlooked. This paper draws on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork encompassing the period from 1990s to the first quarter of the twenty-first century to explore the evolving dynamics of the Nepali public sphere in response to profound changes within the Nepali state. These transformations encompass the shift from a Hindu monarchy to a Maoist revolution, resulting in a secular, republican and federal state. The paper further examines the implications of these shifts for the female entrepreneurs in Nepal who have played a substantial role in Nepal’s industrialisation. en_US
dc.description.department Sociology en_US
dc.description.embargo 2025-07-08
dc.description.librarian hj2024 en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-01:No poverty en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-05:Gender equality en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-08:Decent work and economic growth en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/RSAC en_US
dc.identifier.citation Mallika Shakya (2024) Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry, South Asian History and Culture, 15:1, 48-64, DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2023.2298623. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 1947-2498 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1947-2501 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1080/19472498.2023.2298623
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/95668
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Routledge en_US
dc.rights © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an electronic version of an article published in South Asian History and Culture, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 48-64, 2024, DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2023.2298623. South Asian History and Culture is available online at : https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/RSAC. en_US
dc.subject Textile en_US
dc.subject Clothing en_US
dc.subject Readymade garment en_US
dc.subject Craft en_US
dc.subject Female labour force en_US
dc.subject Female enterprise en_US
dc.subject Gender en_US
dc.subject Empowerment en_US
dc.subject Market en_US
dc.subject Embeddedness en_US
dc.subject Nepal en_US
dc.subject Multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) en_US
dc.subject SDG-01: No poverty en_US
dc.subject SDG-05: Gender equality en_US
dc.subject SDG-08: Decent work and economic growth en_US
dc.title Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry en_US
dc.type Postprint Article en_US


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