Electrical appliances use increased in the households of Kathmandu city for the last three decades. The use and purchase of appliances have a significant contribution to household energy-saving behavior. This study examines gender differences in electrical appliances purchase decision-making process based on socioeconomic contextheadship, family composition, ethnicity, and location as objective variables; and subjective variables-energy practice, knowledge, and consciousness. Data were collected from 623 households survey with cross-sectional interviews for diversity in Kathmandu in inner-city, middle-city, and outer-city layer. The findings indicated that women actively participated in energy-saving practices, and men had little higher energy knowledge in technology. In terms of attitude, women scored significantly higher for environmental consciousness by checking energy bills than men. Household energy saving positively influenced through female participation in energy decision-making process; however, they had a low level of technical knowledge. The study expects to contribute to energy policy for the effective decision-making process to achieve sustainability from empirical knowledge of gender differences.

Energy-saving and efficiency represent a crucial role in achieving a clean environment as well as economic and social development, providing substantial benefits to stakeholders, including householders. Better cost savings can be achieved by simply changing behavior. However, real energy users lack proper technical energy knowledge, awareness, and education in most cases. In most countries, women are involved in a higher percentage of energy activities in household chores but have less gender participation in energy decisions. In this regard, a gender perspective effectively understands energy users’ pragmatic and strategic needs for energy-saving behavior improvement. Previous literature reviews have been focusing on specific aspects of energy sustainability; however, no review has focused on energy-saving from a gender perspective to the best of our knowledge. It aims to provide a systematic review of literature on energy-saving and management, highlighting the importance of gender roles and fulfilling the literature’s study gaps that provide future possible research streams. The review finds that females use lower energy than males in household activities that has supported in household energy-saving behavior. In addition, gender, income, family composition, ownership, and education are significant influencing factors in energy-saving behavior, and gender differences are rooted in socialization, responsibility, and choice of energy appliances that have impacted energy decisions influencing energy-saving behavior and sustainability goals.

Sustainability has endured as a global topic in terms of quality of life and energy-saving for an equalized system. Households represent one of the most energy-consuming sectors globally and are expected to increase tremendously in the future. Women have higher responsibility in the household energy use in most societies. However, their participation and impacts have been less prioritized in the sustainability concept regarding energy perspective. In contrast, most development studies reveal that women's participation in managing resources can positively impact women and policy management. However, women's active participation and influences on social, economic, and environmental contexts are mostly ignored in energy-related decisions, disregarding women's productive activities. Thus, this study evaluates the gender role in urban household energy in three contexts of economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability pillars. This study is exploratory research based on questionnaire survey, interviews, observation, and air quality tests to apprehend appropriate data. The study revealed that the lower-income group uses a larger share of their monthly income for household energy with unclean cooking fuel. It has an impact on low-willingness to participate in new energy technology purchases. The use of electrical appliances and income has a moderate correlation (r = .48). However, Kathmandu urban households are eager to use electric cooking, but urban women have insufficient knowledge, information, and less affordability for new technology. The city's sustainability level is still low (47 scores) from a gender perspective, and it suggests the city needs a long way on the sustainability route. The study concluded that innovative technical interventions and women's financial power are essential, including the subsidy policy to reduce inequality between low and high energy household share variation and elevate gender participation. The gender mainstreaming approach in energy policy can increase women's participation in energy technology to get a clean environment and reduce the nation's financial burden of importing fuel.

Introduction: Sustainability has become a global topic for quality of life on energy efficiency consideration. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability level of household energy consumption from the gender lens.Material and Methods: 623 households above the age of 18 years were surveyed on energy use behavior in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects to evaluate sustainability level. The study was based on interviews, observation, and air quality tests. CO2 of the urban kitchen was tested in 12 households measured in ppm.Results: The study revealed that the lower-income group uses a larger share of their monthly income for household energy needs having unclean cooking fuel. The use of electrical appliances and income has a moderate correlation (r=.48). Social indicators demonstrate that female participation in energy decisions is higher only in female-headed and nuclear families. Environmental indicators exhibit that Kathmandu urban households are eager to use electric cooking, but they have insufficient knowledge, information, and less affordability for new technology. It resulted that the city's sustainability level is still low (56 scores) from a gender perspective.Conclusion: The study concluded that innovative technical interventions are essential to combine with the subsidy policy to reduce inequality between low and high energy household shares. The increased women’s participation in energy technology supports getting a clean environment reducing the nation's financial burden of importing fuel.