Representative Bureaucracy in Nepali Civil Service: Exploring the Encounters of Women

Representative bureaucracy is a sign of inclusive or democratic governance. Different country of the world including Nepal has adopted different policies to confirm meaningful representation of women in civil service. Civil service organization should be gender-sensitive/friendly legally but in reality, women official's experiences gender influenced behaviors. In this regard, this study explored different encounters of women officials experienced in Nepali civil service. This study employed a qualitative approach where the case study was adopted as a strategy of inquiry. Six information-rich cases were selected purposively and in-depth interviews were carried out. The result of the study showed that invisible gender stereotypes are prevalent in Nepali civil service. Women officials are experiencing gender inclined behaviors because of gender-biased mindset. Despite this, women officials are feeling proud to be a part of civil service, and are prepared to face the gender inclined behavior and qualifying themselves to defense challenges with oozing self-confidence.