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1 August 2017 When the Men Are Away: Migration and Women's Participation in Nepal's Community Forestry
Ang Sanu Lama, Sambriddhi Kharel, Tracy Ghale
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Abstract

Studies of migration and gender have focused mostly on changes at the household level, where they have found women's experience to be mixed, with greater autonomy in decision-making but also a greater work burden and increased stress. Little is known about migration's impact on community-level gender relations. This study of 10 forest user groups in 3 districts of Nepal, experiencing different levels of migration, investigated changes within migrant and nonmigrant households and how they impact people's participation in local forest user groups. We found a slight increase in women's participation in the groups' general assemblies, especially among nuclear households with at least 1 migrant member. However, male migration did not seem to increase women's access to those groups' executive committees, where most decisions are made. Traditional gender norms, institutional requirements that privilege literacy and men's networking skills, and men's entrenched control of local forestry institutions continue to limit women's participation in community forestry. Women with migrant husbands also suffer disproportionately from time poverty, which further limits their engagement in activities outside the home.

© 2017 Lama et al. This open access article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please credit the authors and the full source.
Ang Sanu Lama, Sambriddhi Kharel, and Tracy Ghale "When the Men Are Away: Migration and Women's Participation in Nepal's Community Forestry," Mountain Research and Development 37(3), 263-270, (1 August 2017). https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-16-00092.1
Received: 1 April 2017; Accepted: 1 May 2017; Published: 1 August 2017
KEYWORDS
Agenda 2030
community forestry
gender
migration
Nepal
participation in decision-making
Sustainable Development Goals
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