The 27th Foreign Correspondent Report

Chronic Underrepresentation of Women in Sri Lankan Politics
Mr. Nishan WIJETUNGE (Sri Lanka)

Political campaign meeting of a female
candidate running for a local government office

As a historic kingdom, Sri Lanka has had many women rulers in its illustrious past. In
the modern times, as Ceylon, it was one of the first nations to see the establishment of
universal adult suffrage (as early as 1931), when women also received the right to vote.
Irrespective of such encouraging evidence, women have suffered with a chronic
underrepresentation in the country’s modern political arena over the decades. Democracy
was introduced to the island by the British at a time of Victorian values, where maledominance was part and parcel of it. It is sad to observe that more or less the same value
system has been perpetuated well into the 21st century in vain. The golden opportunity that
was afforded by independence did not yield conspicuous reformations in Sri Lankan politics,
and the feeble political status of women remained unaltered.
This anomaly, in fact, has been a big talking point in Sri Lankan politics recently. Amidst
the discussions of promising political reforms recently mediated – in the form of the 20th
amendment to the constitution –, increasing the representation of women has been widelydiscussed. Although the country produced the first ever woman prime minister of the worldin the 1960s, and saw a woman executive president in power in the 1990s, as well as some
women holding powerful ministerial positions over the years, the number of women inpolitics has been dismally low. It is also ironic that the salient underlying factor behind theappointment of a bulk of the aforementioned was sympathy – after their husbands or fathers
fell victim to political assassinations – other than their own merit.
The progression made by Sri Lankan women in the sphere of education over the decades
has made very little positive impact on their political standing. Their 52% population isunderrepresented by 6.5% in parliamentary, 6% in provincial council and 2% in local
government seats. The gendered politics in Sri Lanka has historically stereotyped women as‘home makers’ and men on the contrary, as ‘leaders’. The National Human DevelopmentReport (NHDR) highlights how the youth of the nation are aware neither ofchallenges faced by women in leadership positions, nor of how gender shapes identity
determining one’s ability to perform. In the face of such prejudice, even the mostcompetent women prefer to remain within their culturally-drawn comfort zones, wellaway from popular politics.
Over the years, Women and Media Collective as well as many other women’s groups havelobbied for policy recommendations to the 20th amendment with the intention of increasing
the gender’s parliamentary seats to 25%. The mandatory quota reservation that theaforesaid parties seek to establish has met with wider criticism. The critics postulate that

The 27th Foreign Correspondent Report

the number of women experienced enough to make the expected representation is unrealistic,
and if this number is to be maintained artificially, it will severely disadvantage morequalified and experienced men. Another point raised is that just because spaces are reserved
as electoral seats or on nomination lists, this does not guarantee that women will contestand win. Although sought as a remedial measure to upwardly mobilize women in thepolitical ranks in a situation where a corrupt and gender-biased political culture is prevalent,some women see such a discretionary quota system as insulting. Although it is not a panacea,
such a measure will improve the gender’s visibility in the political sphere as a starting pointat least. An alternative ‘non-quota initiative’ has been also suggested that entails aspects
from funding women (with lesser networks) for their political campaigns, to helping to build
their capacity to run campaigns alone, etc.
The chronic political underrepresentation of women has over the years manifested innumerous ways. Women-specific issues have remained painfully unaddressed in Sri Lanka
for so long. On one hand, in the aftermath of the civil war that saw traditional gender
structures crumble owing to the perishing of hordes of men, women finally have theopportunity to step up. On the other, in an academically-empowered situation as it iscurrently prevalent – where Sri Lanka’s tertiary education sector saw women contributing to
80% and 50% respectively, in the vital fields of law and medicine in the recent years – theyare certainly capable.
More representations by women in politics would surely encourage diversity of views in
the government that would in turn, result in challenging the status quo of gender
discrimination in the nation as a whole. Perhaps, increasing the number of women would
reflect positively on the notion of ‘good governance’ that was in fact, the trump card of thecurrent government. Only time can assess how positively women can influence thisimperative practice that has eluded politics of Sri Lanka for so long.