Ethnographic research was carried out in 1997-98 to identify factors that determined school attendance among Nepali women in the Kathmandu Valley a generation ago. Findings indicate that gender, caste, poverty, cultural prejudice, and rural residence prevented a majority from going to school. Of those who went, most, regardless of academic talent, were pulled out in order to work at home, as wage laborers and domestic servants, or to enter arranged marriages. Only a small minority made the decision to leave school themselves. The article contributes to the study of schooling and gender in South Asia.