Kathmandu: Nepal has elected a long-time women's rights campaigner as the country's first female president, as the Himalayan nation pushes for more gender equality in politics and work life.

​Bidhya Devi Bhandari, the 54-year-old deputy leader of Nepal's Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist-Leninist, had lobbied actively for the new constitution to require that either the president or vice-president be a woman.

Nepalese president-elect Bidhya Devi Bhandari, of the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist-Leninist, in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Credit:AP

Nepal has been trying to shift from a traditionally male-dominated society, where women are mostly limited to working at homes or on farms, to one in which women have equal access to opportunities and legal rights.