Women of Sri Lanka have held positions of political power, have led spiritual lives as Buddhist nuns, have been poets, teachers, doctors, and laborers on farms and in factories. In 1931 Sri Lanka became one of the first countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to permit women to vote. In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first female prime minister of a modern nation. She was the widow of the assassinated prime minister and had the sympathy of the Sri Lankan people, but the role models of historical queens in Sri Lankan history may have also made her acceptance as a female prime minister easier.

Until recently women in Sri Lanka did not challenge working and family conditions that were detrimental to women-perhaps because they suffered less from oppressive customs common to other groups of women in South Asia. However, in recent years women in Sri Lanka have formed women's organizations to promote equal work opportunities and other reforms for women. In 1978 a Women's Bureau was set up by the government and the non-governmental organization, Kantha Handa (Voice of Women), was founded. Both organizations were initiated partly in response to the United Nations International Women's Year (1975). The United Nations Decade for Women was an inspiration to women of Sri Lanka to organize and seek reforms that benefit women.

ISSUES OF WOMEN

Women and Politics

Even though Sri Lankan women have been in the highest seats in politics, even though. Sri Lanka produced the first woman prime minister in the world, and even though the current President of Sri Lanka is a woman (Chandrika Kumaranathunga) such leadership did not significantly improve the quality of Sri Lankan women. It is somewhat deceiving and misleading to state that in general women are in the leading decision making positions. A deeper analysis shows a different story. The elected women leaders belong to a dynasty, with privileged socio-economic and political family backgrounds which provided them with exceptional opportunities specially to fill a vacuum left by their husbands or fathers. Still it is a male dominated society. Male supremacy is nurtured and enhanced in every possible way. It does not guarantee any equal rights for women.

In Sri Lanka, women in the bottom strata of the society who constitute the majority of the population are struggling to lead a decent life. They are faced with many issues on a day to day basis. Even the women movements, mostly headed by upper class women, have not been able to lift the poor women from the harsh realities in life. Below section summarizes some of the issues that women at the grassroots level in Sri Lanka are faced with.

ISSUES OF WOMEN AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL

Lack of Opportunities for Participation in the Decision-making Process

In Sri Lanka, grassroots women are at the periphery of the decision making process. In spite of two women leaders running the country for more than a decade, elected women politicians are extremely low -- below 2%. Women shy away from participating in politics because involving in politics means getting involved in violence. Lack of grassroots women participation in the country's political machinery has led to the neglect of issues of the majority of the women population receiving due attention.

Unemployment Among Women

Unemployment among women is high and it is double that of men, even though Sri Lanka constitution guarantees absence of discrimination in employment. Women are basically the suppliers of cheap labor. Even though there is a considerable participation by women in the top-level jobs, as administrators, doctors, and lawyers, majority of women work in low paying jobs in garment industry, free trade zones, migrant laborers (100,00 a year work in the Middle East), and as laborers in the tea plantation sector. (Sri Lanka is the world's largest tea producing country.)

Violence Against Women

Violence has started to creep into the society at a fast rate. Gender-based violence have become a fact of life. Issues around women migrant workers have brought physical and mental damages to the entire family. Rape related violence, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment, domestic violence, violence related to spousal alcohol abuse are common. These have become facts of life in the lives of poor women in Sri Lanka. Socio-cultural practices such dowry systems are still there not to the extent as it used to be. But it still exist as a subtle cultural feature in the society.

Impact of War on Grassroots Women

The hardest hit are the women in the conflict zones. The war has forced women to take greater responsibilities in economic and social life, making them to be the main breadwinners. The stories about women in conflict zones are heart throbbing in every respect. Violation of human rights with regard to women is worse in war zones.