In 2008 Bhutan became the world’s new democracy. Such a momentous
occasion offered a unique opportunity for research to explore the changes that
universal suffrage would bring to a society dominated by the monarchy for more than
one hundred years. In particular this study set out to investigate the way in which
alterations to the political landscape would impact on Bhutanese women. As a
traditional society Bhutanese women’s lives were dominated by their biology and
their work in the domestic sphere. This shift in the way Bhutan was governed
provided women, for the first time, with the prospect of moving to the public and
political arena, an area usually reserved for men.
Data for this study were obtained from three sources – semi- structured
interviews with 26 women and 17 men throughout Bhutan, analysis of public
documents, and observations in the field during the election campaign and later
parliamentary sittings during the course of 2012.
This study exposes the patriarchy which is embedded in Bhutanese society and
reinforced through cultural practices and the legal framework. Further it examines
the public/private dichotomy, the low educational attainment of girls and women and
the gendered division of labour which derails women’s public life. It reveals a
masculine driven election campaign, women’s marginalised position in political
parties, impediments to their seeking candidature, hurdles in their entry to the
parliament itself and the challenges of being a woman in the world of men. Feminism
as an agency of women is yet to take off in Bhutan