Gender inequality in Sri Lanka is centered on the inequalities that arise between men and women in Sri Lanka. Specifically, these inequalities affect many aspects of women's lives, starting with sex-selective abortions and male preferences, then education and schooling in childhood, which influence job opportunities, property rights, access to health and political participation in adulthood. 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 fewer 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 the role of women.
History
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.
Global rankings There are a number of different organizations and developed methods of measuring the amount of development a country has achieved, which can focus specifically on human, economic or social development, as well as a number of other factors. A number of statistics will also combine these focuses to try to have a fuller picture of development in different countries. According to the World Economic Forum, Sri Lanka ranks 55th in the world when it comes to gender equality gap, 109th in Economic Participation and Opportunity rank, 48th in educational attainment and 30th in political participation.
Sri Lanka is ranked 73/187, a 0.750 HDI (Human Development Index) ranking. Additionally, it is ranked 75th out of the 149 countries listed in the 2013 Gender Inequality Index (GII). The GII is similar to the HDI in that it looks at the differences between men and women of different countries; the higher ranked a country is, the larger the gap is between the genders. The GII combines three main factors that tend to create achievement gaps between the genders. Firstly, adolescent birth rates and maternal mortality are measured to demonstrate reproductive health. Secondly, labor market participation rates are measured to convey economic status. And thirdly, they measure the proportion of women who work in parliament and levels of education, which make up the "empowerment" factor.
YearHuman Development IndexGender Inequality Index201091/187 -201191/187 -201292/187 -201373/18775/149201473/18775/149 While Sri Lanka ranks in the middle in global rankings, it ranks relatively high when compared to neighboring countries. The Gender Inequality Index is based upon the following aspects: reproductive health, empowerment, and participation in the workforce. The table below describes the statistics that make up each of the above topics. Specifically, maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rate make up reproductive health, female seats in parliament and population with some secondary education make up empowerment, and labor force participation makes up the workforce section.
GII valueGII RankMaternal mortality ratioAdolescent birth rateFemale seats in parliament
(%)Population with at least some secondary
education (%) -malePopulation
with at least some secondary
education (%) - femaleLabor force
participation
rate (%) - maleLabor
force
participation
rate (%) - femaleSri Lanka.3837535.016.95.875.572.776.435.0Pakistan.565126260.027.319.746.119.382.924.4South Asia.531 -202.038.317.848.533.480.730.7High HDI.315 -42.026.418.869.160.277.157.0
Causes Patriarchal society A patriarchy is defined as "a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favor men and withhold opportunity from women".
Some of the main causes of this gender inequality is due to the patriarchal nature of Sri Lankan culture and the historical effects of the unbalanced weight put on the value of males. As time has passed, a shift in roles and expectations has started, moving towards more independence and empowerment for women. However, according to Matt Withers and Janaka Biyanwila, experts in labor migration and economies, "Sri Lanka's labour market remains heavily segmented and offers limited sustainable economic opportunity for a majority of women". Specifically, in markets where men are also deprived of labor rights, like that of crop plantations, women are found to be treated even worse by their male counterparts.
The patriarchal society in Sri Lanka that has been so entrenched in its history is intensely also perpetuated by the use of marriage as a social institution. Even while women may work at the same time as doing the majority of the housework and childcare, they are still marginalized as it is deemed socially incorrect to venture outside of the domestic sphere.
Dowry Furthermore, gender inequality has also been continued by cultural practices, both legal and illegal, including the use of dowries and certain limiting marriage laws. Dowries have been shown to have both positive and negative effects on women, while on one hand they may enhance their marriageability and allow them to gain in social status, it also places a large amount of stress and pressure on the family of the bride to provide enough funds for the family of the groom. Usually, material gifts will be given to the daughter for her wedding and the groom's family will be compensated for what is sometimes deemed as the burden of the wife into the family. This also can lead to gender-based violence and domestic abuse when the husband or his family believe the dowry was not sufficient.
Marriage and property rights According to a study by the Brookings Institution, inheritance and property rights are "relatively favorable for women in Sri Lanka", but as they describe, because of the multitude of different cultural groups in Sri Lanka, along with following the general law, they will follow various additional cultural practices and requirements. The Sinhalese, Northern Tamil and Muslim practices vary from practicing Kandyan law, Thesavalamai Law and Muslim law. The Muslims and Tamils additionally use the Kudi, a matrilocal system that is expressed in marriage and religious festivals. Because of these differences, there can be varying degrees of freedom when it comes to women's rights, despite having general laws that would normally protect the rights of women.
Natural disasters such as the tsunami in 2004 and historical ethnic conflicts have greatly affected the dowry system as many women lost some or all of their property and material possessions.
Son preference The preference for male children and ensuing discrimination against girls has been a detriment to the status of women in Sri Lankan culture. Specifically, prenatal sex selection has been a crucial issue in discrimination against females, and experts have debated whether pre-natal sex selection might subsequently reduce postnatal discrimination. Compared to other countries in the surrounding area, such as India, preferences for sons have not been as mired in the culture as that of Sri Lanka and is thus considered an outlier in this region of high son preference. Furthermore, according to a study by the Bioscience research group, the slight cultural inclination to choose sons over daughters in Sri Lanka is expressed more within reproductive intentions instead of direct contraceptive action.
Economic inequalities Labor participation and wages
Historically, women in Sri Lanka have reduced access to quality employment, and even if they do obtain a job, they are paid far less and are subject to more harassment and limitations as compared to males working the same jobs. The Sri Lankan labor market is deeply separated and leaves little opportunity for women to gain access to jobs. Because of patriarchal policies embedded in the history of this region, women are over-represented in the low-paid, laborious industries of the country. Specifically, it is in these jobs that women face a disproportionate amount of labor discrimination and lack of proper wages in the name of international competitiveness and the production of additional jobs. However, again due to increased political involvement by females, the conditions for these workers, especially in industries such as export-processing, have been improving in past years.
Access to credit Institutional restrictions such as access to credit and property also create large obstacles in the way of gender equality. According to the International Labour Organization, access to credit proves to be one of the largest, if not the largest, obstacles when it comes to women starting and running their own micro-enterprises. Since the mid-1970s, organizations have started providing alternative routes to access credit for women, including outlets such as social and intermediary NGO programs, poverty-oriented development banks, and savings and credit unions and cooperations. Having access to credit has been shown to add greatly to the capabilities of women, as seen in a study in Sri Lanka, being able to take out a loan allowed women to have more power when it came to bargaining with male members of the family.
Occupational inequalities In many cases females are deprived of equal access to jobs, even when they are not well paid or high status. The unemployment rate for women in Sri Lanka was 13% in 2012, which was six times higher than that of males, according to the Labour Force Survey taken by the department of census and statistics.