page_title: Gender inequality in Sri Lanka
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gender inequality in Sri Lanka / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Tissa Wijeyeratne with Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Alexei Kosygin. This photo from my family collection If you need any clarification you may contact this address. Copyright holder Anuradha Dullewe Wijeyeratne 168/ 7, Inner Flower Road, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka. anuradha.007@live.com
context_page_description: Gender inequality in Sri Lanka is centered on the inequalities that arise between men and women in Sri Lanka. Specifically, these inequalities affect many aspect of women's lives, starting with sex-selective abortions and male preferences, education and schooling, which goes on to effect job opportunities, property rights, access to health and political participation. While Sri Lanka is ranked well on several gender equality indices in comparison to other countries in the region, there are also some sources that question the verity of these indices. However, globally, Sri Lanka ranks relatively lower on gender equality indices. Overall, this pattern of social history that disempowers females produces a cycle of undervaluing females, providing only secondary access to health care and schooling and thus less opportunities to take on high level jobs or training, which then exacerbates the issue of low political participation and lowered social rights, a cycle studied and noted on by Dr. Elaine Enarson, a disaster sociologist studying the connection between disaster and role of women.
context_section_description: In 1960, Sri Lanka elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first female head of state and Sri Lanka's first female prime minister.
  Throughout the history of Sri Lanka, there has been significant progress in respect to women's rights. Specifically, following the International Women's Year in 1975 and the United Nations Decade for Women from 1976 to 1985, a number of policies and laws were enacted to enhance the rights of women in the Sri Lankan government. In 1981, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women held, and additionally, the third chapter of the Constitution on Fundamental Rights was also adopted into the constitution. Article 12 of the chapter apprised that, "No citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth or any such grounds". There is some criticism of the clause as it does not specifically state women to independently deserve additional rights are instead included within a list of other disadvantaged statuses.
  Further developments included the establishment of both the National Plan of Action for Women and Women's Charter in 1996. The National Plan of Action for Women was the result of the UN meeting on the Commission on Status of Women, which was held during early 2005. Its purpose is to achieve gender equality via legislative changes and policy programs, and all signatories of the plan committed to achieve the goal.
  
  Throughout Sri Lanka's history, women have played a large role, especially when it comes to politics and previous armed conflicts. However, gender inequality is still a prevalent issue in Sri Lanka.
caption: Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Russia with Alexei Kosygin Premier of the Soviet Union
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