Notable Women of Nepal: A 'Firsts' Directory

Nepal's modern republic has produced a cluster of historic firsts for women within a single decade, from the head of state and the head of government to the presiding officer of Parliament and the pioneer of Himalayan mountaineering. This directory brings together the most-searched names in one place, each entry stating the exact office or feat, the date it was achieved, and the institution that records or conferred it.

The four women profiled here answer the recurring general-knowledge and Loksewa (public service examination) questions: the first woman President of Nepal, the first female Prime Minister of Nepal, the first woman Chief Justice, the first woman Speaker, and the first Nepali woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Where relevant, dates are given in the Gregorian (AD) calendar, which is how the official gazettes, the Office of the President, the Federal Parliament Secretariat, and the Supreme Court record these events.

Three of these firsts (President, Speaker, and interim Prime Minister) cluster around Nepal's transition to a federal democratic republic after the promulgation of the 2015 Constitution, while the mountaineering first dates from 1993. Taken together, they mark the widening entry of Nepali women into the highest offices of state and into elite sport.

Bidya Devi Bhandari (born 19 June 1961 in Bhojpur district) became the first woman President of Nepal when Parliament elected her as head of state on 28 October 2015, shortly after the new Constitution came into force. In that indirect election she secured 327 votes against Nepali Congress candidate Kul Bahadur Gurung's 214. She took office on 29 October 2015 as Nepal's second President under the republican system.

Bhandari, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist, or CPN-UML) and former chair of the All Nepal Women's Association, was re-elected for a second term in March 2018. Her presidency ended on 13 March 2023, when Ram Chandra Paudel succeeded her. Across two terms she served roughly seven and a half years as head of state.

Her career included another first: from 2009 to 2011 she was Nepal's first woman Minister of Defence, a post in which she oversaw sensitive security matters during the integration of former Maoist combatants. The Office of the President of Nepal records her as the first female president elected by Parliament under the 2015 Constitution.

Sushila Karki (born 7 June 1952, associated with Biratnagar) holds two distinct firsts. She became the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal when she was appointed on 11 July 2016, serving until her retirement on 6 June 2017. She was known during her tenure for a firm anti-corruption stance from the bench.

In September 2025 she achieved a second, separate first: she was sworn in as Nepal's first woman Prime Minister. This followed the Generation Z-led anti-corruption protests that forced Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli to resign. Karki's name emerged from public deliberations, including an online consultation organised by the protest group Hami Nepal, and she was chosen for her reputation for political neutrality.

On 12 September 2025, on Karki's recommendation, President Ram Chandra Paudel dissolved the Federal Parliament, and Karki was sworn in as interim Prime Minister under Article 61 of the Constitution of Nepal. Her mandate was to steer the country to fresh general elections. Because she had earlier led the judiciary, she also became the first woman in Nepal's history to have served as both Chief Justice and Prime Minister.

Onsari Gharti Magar (born 13 November 1977) became the first woman Speaker in Nepal's parliamentary history when she was elected unopposed to lead the Legislature-Parliament on 16 October 2015. A former Maoist insurgent who fought during the decade-long conflict that ended in 2006, she represented the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).

Before becoming Speaker she had served as Deputy Speaker of the Constituent Assembly, which doubled as the Legislature-Parliament, and she had held the portfolio of Minister of Youth and Sports. Her election as Speaker was widely reported as a milestone for women's representation in the legislature, coming days before Nepal also elected its first woman President.

Her term as Speaker ran until October 2017, ending with the dissolution of that Parliament ahead of the 2017 federal and provincial elections. The Federal Parliament Secretariat records her as the first woman to preside over Nepal's national legislature.

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa (born 10 December 1961) became the first Nepali woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest (Sagarmatha, 8,848.86 m) on 22 April 1993. She climbed via the South Col and the Southeast Ridge route with a team of Sherpa climbers, having made several earlier unsuccessful attempts.

Her triumph was followed by tragedy. During the descent a fierce snowstorm struck and the team ran out of supplemental oxygen; Pasang Lhamu Sherpa and her companion Sonam Tshering Sherpa died on the mountain. She left behind three children and became a national symbol of determination.

She was honoured posthumously as the first woman to receive the Nepal Tara (Nepal Star) decoration. The Government of Nepal renamed a peak, Jasamba Himal (7,315 m), as Pasang Lhamu Peak in her memory, a postage stamp was issued in her name, and the Trishuli-Dhunche road was designated the Pasang Lhamu Highway. Her feat is recorded within the mountaineering registry maintained under the Nepal Mountaineering Association and the Department of Tourism.

These milestones are not just trivia; they mark the opening of Nepal's highest constitutional offices and its most demanding physical arena to women. Within roughly one week in October 2015, Nepal installed both its first woman Speaker and its first woman President, an unusually rapid pair of firsts driven by the new Constitution's emphasis on inclusion, which reserves proportions of seats and posts for women.

The 2015 Constitution requires that either the President or the Vice-President be a woman, and that the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives be a woman, formalising gender inclusion at the top of the state. This helps explain why so many of Nepal's political firsts for women cluster in the post-2015 period.

Sushila Karki's 2025 appointment as interim Prime Minister added an executive first that no reserved-seat rule mandated, arising instead from a moment of political crisis and public trust in her neutrality. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa's 1993 ascent predates all of these by more than two decades, showing that Nepali women were breaking barriers in the Himalaya well before the political firsts followed.