Nepal, June 16 -- With the shortlist for the post of vice-chancellors (VC) at each of the eight universities released, one statistic is more revealing than anything else: Only four women among 188 shortlists. For someone working in higher education for 14 years, such an outcome didn't come as a surprise.

In my 2021 piece, I discussed the increase in female literacy in Nepal and how that alone does not lead to greater equality for women in higher education. Female enrollment in higher education as consumers had grown, but the lack of representation of females in higher education as producers of knowledge in academic institutions was glaring. Even five years later, the question of why women in academia are underrepresented remains relevant...