Building, Leading, Disrupting: Women in Nepal’s Business Space

There has been a steady rise in women-owned businesses and women in leadership roles across Nepal. While exact figures vary, the momentum is clear across sectors such as retail, tourism, banking, technology, handicrafts and social enterprises. In urban centres like Kathmandu, better access to education, digital tools and professional networks has enabled more women to launch and scale businesses. In rural areas, progress is slower but meaningful, often driven by cooperatives and community-based enterprises.

The Rise of Women in Nepal’s Business Landscape

For Ruby Raut, founder of WUKA, entrepreneurship began with lived experience. Growing up in Nepal and later studying environmental science abroad, she became increasingly aware of the stigma around menstruation and the environmental cost of disposable sanitary products.

“There was not just one turning point,” Raut reflects. “It was a series of realisations - the silence around periods, the waste we were creating, and the sense that this could be different.”

What began as an idea evolved into a global mission. Today, WUKA is stocked in major retailers across multiple countries. But scaling a product that challenges both consumer habits and cultural taboos meant navigating skepticism at every stage. “We were not just selling a product,” she says. “We were asking people to rethink something deeply ingrained.”

In tourism, leaders like Shreejana Rana, Executive Director at Annapurna Group of Hotels, see the sector as one of Nepal’s most underutilised economic engines, closely linked to agriculture, handicrafts, employment and national identity.

“When I looked at tourism, I thought this is where I belong,” Rana says. “The potential was real. What I did not fully see at the beginning was what it would cost to act on that belief.”

Her experience reflects a broader shift. Across industries - from beauty and food to manufacturing - women are no longer peripheral players. They are building companies, shaping markets and redefining leadership on their own terms.

Organisations such as the Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal and the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal have played a key role in this transition by providing training, networks and advocacy support.

In the beauty sector, entrepreneurs like Sunita Adhikari, founder of Homa Japanese Health and Beauty Store, highlight the value of customer intuition combined with technical expertise.
“Being a woman can help in understanding customer needs and emotions, especially in beauty,” she says. “But true success comes from combining that insight with research, discipline and business capability.”

Yet she is clear that leadership is not gender-defined. “Running a business requires finance, operations, negotiation and management skills. These are not gendered skills—they are professional ones.”

Persistent Barriers in a Male-Dominated Economy

Despite progress, structural challenges remain significant.

Access to capital is one of the biggest constraints. Many women struggle to secure loans due to limited collateral or embedded biases in financial systems. Even when financing exists, the process is often complex and discouraging.

Gender imbalance in leadership persists, limiting women’s influence in both corporate and policy spaces. The dual burden of professional work and domestic responsibilities further constrains participation in business growth.

“The industry I entered had almost no women in leadership or ownership,” says Rana. “But the barriers were not just cultural—they were financial.”
She adds, “Property rights were not in our favour. Assets were rarely in women’s names, which meant accessing capital was an early structural disadvantage.”

Informal networks also remain male-dominated, restricting access to mentorship and opportunity pipelines.

Raut echoes this reality: “There is still a perception that certain industries are not for women. You have to keep proving yourself.”
Yet these constraints have also fostered resilience. Women are building alternative networks and supporting each other in the absence of formal systems.

Women Redefining Leadership and Innovation

If traditional business systems often excluded women, today’s entrepreneurs are reshaping them.
For many, leadership is defined less by hierarchy and more by impact. Sustainability, for example, is not a branding strategy but a core value.

“We wanted to build something that respects both people and the environment,” Adhikari explains.

In food and consumer goods, women-led SMEs are reinterpreting local ingredients for modern markets while supporting traditional producers.

Digital platforms have accelerated this shift. Entrepreneurs such as Manjita Manandhar (MyDarling Food), Nayuma Rai (Binduli), Lekbesy Lapsi Truffle and Makkuse are using social media not just for marketing, but for community-building and direct consumer engagement.

Global organisations including UN Women and the International Labour Organisation have also supported women’s entrepreneurship through training, funding and advocacy initiatives.
Raut’s work with WUKA illustrates how business can also become advocacy. Her campaign to remove VAT on menstrual products in the UK challenged both pricing structures and social stigma.

“Business gives you a platform,” she says. “What you do with that platform matters.”

The Future of Women in Business in Nepal

The question is no longer whether women belong in business, but how far their influence can extend.

“When women participate in leadership, the entire economy benefits,” says Rana. “But we are still not investing enough in that pipeline.”

She highlights policy reforms, financial inclusion and simplified regulations as critical enablers of growth for women-led enterprises.

Mentorship also plays a key role. “The gains are real - in education, property rights and opportunity,” she says. “But we still lose talent when women step back during motherhood. That loss is rarely accounted for.”

The next generation is already shifting the landscape. Young women are more digitally connected, better educated and less willing to accept structural limitations.

“There is a new energy,” says Adhikari. “Women are not just following trends. They are creating them.”

For Rana, progress is cumulative. “If one woman succeeds, it creates a ripple effect.”

For Raut, change is incremental but powerful. “It starts with small conversations but it does not have to stay small.”

Across these stories, a common thread emerges: women in Nepal are not waiting for permission to lead. They are already building, experimenting and redefining success.

The barriers remain real - structural, cultural and systemic - but so does momentum.

Nepal’s economy will not be shaped by one group alone. But as more women step into leadership and enterprise, they are not just claiming space, they are expanding it.

The ceiling has not disappeared. It has been polished, softened, made less visible, but it is still there. One woman at the table is not inclusion; it is only the beginning. And the shift, though underway, has just started.