Kathmandu, March 7 -- There was a time not long ago when Nepal had a female president, a female Speaker of the House and a female Chief Justice. Women accounted for 33% of seats in Parliament following the provision in the 2015 Constitution that mandated at least one-third female representation.

It looked like Nepal was way ahead of everyone else in the region and much of the world. But by the 2022 elections, the country regressed.

Women were token figures used by male party bosses to use Proportional Representation seats. The increase in numerical representation of women has not necessarily resulted in substantive changes for citizens.

In the 2017 elections, political parties primarily assigned women to the deputy position in local g...