The Continuing Challenges of Career Women in Sri Lanka
Ms. Vindhya WEERATUNGA (Sri Lanka)
Different cultures in the world have moulded the roles of men and women to fit their unique
circumstances. Interestingly, these roles have not changed much with the socio, business, andeconomic environments of countries. This situation is true, at least for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million. With more females in the population (51%) and highliteracy rate for females (94.6%), one would imagine the woman’s role in Sri Lanka to be of highsignificance.

Women, certainly have come a long way from completely being away from theworkforce. Today, young girls aspire to have blossoming careers and compete with their malecounterparts in the workplace. By law, women have equal rights as men.
However, Sri Lanka has a patriarchal culture which has not changed much. The woman
remains solely responsible for domestic duties and if the man helps her, it will be considered as a‘favor’. Even though many women share equal financial responsibilities with their husbands, theirworkload as mothers and wives is not shared adequately by their husbands.
The society’s perception of a woman’s role is very evident in the media. The local TV
commercials and tele-dramas often portray the female as always doing household chores andchildren’s work. It conveys the message that a woman should play the historic role of the full-time
mother and wife, in addition to being an income-earner. Despite numerous gender development
programmes, the norms and attitudes of the society have not changed to a great extent. Anotherexample is parental leave. In the government sector, females are granted 84 working days ofmaternity leave, but fathers are granted only 3 days of paternity leave. In the business sector,
some companies grant 1-2 weeks of paternity leave; however, the government is yet to recognizethat it is not purely the mothers’ responsibility to attend to the numerous requirements of a newborn.
As the demands of the household and family increase, career women have opted to leave theircareers and become stay-at-home mothers. This is evident from the alarming statistics reported inthe Annual Report 2014 of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). According to CBSL, the labour
force participation rate (LFPR) of females continues to decline and stands at 34.8%, the second
lowest in the region, whilst the male LFPR is 74.6%. The female unemployment rate is 6.5%,
double that of males (3.2%).

With the emergence of nuclear families and rapid urbanization, couples have to look after
their children on their own. Since the ‘mother’ is perceived as the parent responsible forchildbearing and child-rearing, ultimately she is compelled to leave her job. Once the children aregrown up, even if she wants to be employed, she would face difficulty finding work due to thecareer-break. This hinders the possibility and opportunity for females to be financiallyindependent and add economic value to the country, thereby creating a disparity.
Another challenge for career women is the lack of safe accommodation and transportation
facilities (CBSL, 2014). Rural women come to urban areas for work and face difficulty finding safe
and affordable accommodation. Due to the distance, it would not be possible to travel daily.
Also, certain employers prefer male employees over females. Some reasons they cite are:women’s difficulties in doing field jobs, and in staying at work beyond regular working hours, aswell as having to stay away due to pregnancy. Therefore, even though women are educated andequally qualified as men, the fact that they are females limits their opportunities of entering thelabour force.
From an economic point of view, this is a significant issue.

On one hand, despite theinvestment made by the government in providing free and equal opportunities for education, theexpected benefits cannot be reaped from females when they do not make an economic valueaddition. On the other hand, the country would not be able to achieve its set targets with ashrinking labour force (CBSL, 2014). Therefore, it is imperative for Sri Lanka to address theseissues and attract more females into the labour force. It is also important that children are
educated on the evolved roles of the mother and father, in order to achieve gender-equality infuture.

Sri Lankan mother with her child

Sri Lankan graduates