#EachforEqual

This weekend the world will celebrate Women’s Day, which is a chance to talk about the many issues that women face, and how important it is to overcome these challenges so women can enjoy equal opportunities and rights. 

From an economic standpoint, women not only make up the bulk of Sri Lanka’s population, but are also the largest foreign exchange earners. For decades, remittances have remained at the top of Sri Lanka’s earnings, followed by apparel and tea, which are dominated by women workers. Tourism, which has climbed to the third spot, also benefits from significant female employment. Yet women still face massive bottlenecks in every sphere of life. 

Women’s representation in politics has been dismal, especially at Parliament level. Even though a quota was introduced at Local Government level, there is much that needs to be done to increase women’s representation in national politics, and also to encourage women elected to office to work on issues that have significant impact for women. Despite making a marked economic contribution, women are still routinely discriminated on a range of points, including pay gaps, glass ceilings, limited access to credit, low representation in the formal workforce, and even transport safety.

Levelling the employment playing field requires building an environment for skilled women to create their own opportunities. This means addressing social norms about working women, and promoting an environment where women can balance work and family.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that Sri Lanka’s GDP could increase by as much as 20% if there were more women in the formal workforce and it would also substantially improve welfare access, education and financial inclusivity opportunities as well. However for many year the percentage of women in the formal workforce has remained limited to just 34% and many people in Sri Lanka’s private sector have not implemented policies that could see this change.

The degree of job segregation remains high: most jobs are still in male-dominated sectors that may be seen as inappropriate for women. It also means addressing gender-based differential treatment under the law, which the Government has pledged to tackle, but is likely to find a hard and long road. 

Mentoring is another aspect that needs desperate attention. Indebtedness created in some parts of Sri Lanka, particularly in the north, is largely due to female entrepreneurs being lured into making bad financial decisions in limited ventures. In fact, in studies done on successful female entrepreneurs, mentorship has been ranked above capital in importance, and often makes the difference between a sustainable model and a pipe dream. Regulatory restrictions that disproportionately affect women have also been a long term issue. 

There is undoubtedly a moral and economic reason to empower women. The campaign for women’s empowerment should not be looked at in silos, but understood as an issue that spans the entire social sphere: only then will positive policies be utilised for true change. It is extremely important that the Government introduces policies to address these issues as soon as possible. Perhaps the first place to start is to recognise that disparity exists and actually see the problem without living in their respective bubbles.