When nations crumble under crisis, something curious happens - people begin to look for a different kind of leader. Not louder. Not tougher. But more trusted.

After Nepal’s Gen Z revolution, the country stood at a breaking point. Streets overflowed with frustration, politics was paralyzed, and public faith in leadership had hit rock bottom. In that moment of chaos, Nepal turned to a woman, Sushila Karki, who was sworn in as the country’s first female Prime Minister.

If the situation hadn’t been that critical, Nepal might have waited decades to see a woman in that seat. Her rise was not born of calm, but of collapse - and that reveals something deeper about how societies perceive women in power.

The Trust Factor

In times of crisis, trust becomes a nation’s most valuable and most depleted resource. When male-dominated systems fail, people instinctively look for leaders who seem morally grounded, empathetic, and less entangled in political games.

Women - fairly or unfairly - often carry that symbolic hope. They are seen as healers, not power players. Their leadership signals a break from corruption, ego, and the politics of blame.

That was true in Nepal, and it has been true around the world.

When Britain was reeling from Brexit, Theresa May was handed the impossible task of managing the aftermath. In Canada, Kim Campbell became Prime Minister just as her party was collapsing. During Iceland’s financial meltdown, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir rose to power to rebuild trust.

Time and again, women emerge when trust in traditional leadership disappears.

The Scapegoat Effect: The “Glass Cliff” Trap

But here’s the darker side of that story: women are often trusted only when the risks are highest - and blamed if things go wrong.

Karki’s rise came during one of Nepal’s most fragile political periods. She wasn’t stepping into comfort; she was stepping into chaos. While many celebrated her appointment, others quietly set the bar unfairly high.

If she succeeded, she would be hailed as proof of women’s potential. If she failed, her failure would be used to justify decades of exclusion.

This is what scholars call the “glass cliff” - when women are elevated to leadership in times of crisis, only to be pushed off if things collapse. It’s a global pattern, from politics to business, revealing how even progress can carry a hidden trap.

Global Parallels

Across the world, women often rise when the system is at its weakest.

In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern restored hope through empathy and calm during the Christchurch massacre and the pandemic. In Germany, Angela Merkel guided Europe through financial and migration crises with steady resolve. In Finland, Sanna Marin, the world’s youngest Prime Minister, led with quiet confidence through global uncertainty.

In many European nations, however, women’s leadership is no longer treated as extraordinary or temporary. In Finland, Iceland, and Denmark, women now lead in both calm and crisis, proving that once trust is earned, it can become tradition.

That’s where Nepal still needs to go.

Crisis as Catalyst

Crisis, however unfair, often creates openings that stability resists. If the Gen Z revolution hadn’t shaken Nepal, the establishment might not have allowed a woman to lead so soon. Stability rarely questions hierarchy, but instability demands reinvention.

Crises remind societies that women can lead with both competence and compassion - qualities often dismissed until there’s no other choice left.

Beyond Symbolism

But we cannot keep waiting for collapse to make space for women.

Women shouldn’t have to prove themselves only in emergencies. They shouldn’t have to clean up the mess just to be blamed for the stains later.

Real equality means trusting women to lead in peace, not just in panic.

Across Nepal, countless women already lead quietly - in villages, communities, and movements for climate resilience, peacebuilding, and human rights - long before anyone gives them a title. To achieve true equality, those everyday leaders must be recognized, supported, and elevated before the next crisis hits.

In the End

When Sushila Karki became Prime Minister, she didn’t just make history - she exposed a truth about leadership itself.

People trust women when everything else has failed because they still represent something the world craves: integrity, empathy, and the ability to heal.

But we shouldn’t need revolutions to remember that women can lead. What we need is courage - as societies, voters, and institutions - to trust women before the storm.

And when we celebrate the first woman - be it a Prime Minister, President, Chief Justice, or Attorney General - let’s make sure she isn’t the last.

Let her mark the beginning of many more - until women’s leadership is no longer a milestone, but a norm.

Would you like me to make a headline and sub-headline version suitable for a newspaper front-page or editorial feature (e.g., “When Crisis Calls, Women Answer - But At What Cost?”)?

(Upasana Rana - Executive Director, Women for Human Rights – WHR)