Skip to main content

Bhutan

World News

Bhutan's first female minister: engineer, equality warrior and former civil servant

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on
Back

Bhutan's first female minister: engineer, equality warrior and former civil servant

Source:

Being a civil servant in this country is a unique challenge. Moving from a 20-year civil service career to becoming a government minister – and becoming the first democratically elected female minister of the country in the process – could be seen as even more of a challenge, but it’s one that Dorji Choden has taken on with ease. For Choden, an engineer by training, being in the service of her country is something she is glad to take on – and it beats the year she spent doing a master’s degree in Syracuse, New York state, where she was desperately homesick.

Being a civil servant in this country is a unique challenge. Moving from a 20-year civil service career to becoming a government minister – and becoming the first democratically elected female minister of the country in the process – could be seen as even more of a challenge, but it’s one that Dorji Choden has taken on with ease. For Choden, an engineer by training, being in the service of her country is something she is glad to take on – and it beats the year she spent doing a master’s degree in Syracuse, New York state, where she was desperately homesick.

World News

Bhutan faces unofficial gender gap

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on
Back

Bhutan faces unofficial gender gap

Source:

Officially, there is no gender divide in Bhutan. Traditionally, women in this mainly matriarchal society have inherited their parents’ property and husbands often move into their wives’ homes after marriage. Constitutionally, women are guaranteed equal rights. And yet, says Lily Wangchhuk, the first and only woman president of any political party in Bhutan, in practice, there are “huge gender gaps”.
Officially, there is no gender divide in Bhutan. Traditionally, women in this mainly matriarchal society have inherited their parents’ property and husbands often move into their wives’ homes after marriage. Constitutionally, women are guaranteed equal rights. And yet, says Lily Wangchhuk, the first and only woman president of any political party in Bhutan, in practice, there are “huge gender gaps”.