Public policy and the glass ceiling

Thursday, 18 February 2021 00:20 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The filing of a Fundamental Rights petition against the appointment of Bimshani Jasin Arachchi, Sri Lanka’s first female Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), has sparked an essential conversation over systemic and structural issues against women in both the local public and private sectors.

What is telling in this instance is, despite political lip service for decades, public policy is still woefully inadequate and unsuccessful at breaking the glass ceiling. In this instance it is clear that the Police Commission should have set up a parallel promotion structure for women officers to ensure equality.   

There are many examples around the world that have proven public policies play an essential role in helping women enter the workforce, remain in it, and progress to managerial positions. Thus, the importance of governments accelerating the process of closing the gender gap has been underlined. But a report compiled by the World Bank in 2017 found that Sri Lanka has the 14th largest labour gap in the world with only about 36% of women in the workforce. 

The static statistic is telling of the structural and systemic challenges that exist across Sri Lanka. In a 2019 survey led by the International Labour Organization with nearly 13,000 surveyed enterprises worldwide, 57% of companies said that women made up less than 30% of their senior managers and fewer than 30% of top executive positions. Based on the current rate, the World Economic Forum calculated that it would take 257 years to close the gender gap in business (Weforum, 2020). 

Sri Lanka is no better, with the International Finance Corporation estimating that women comprise only 8% of more than 1,500 board directors in listed companies. So the issue is not just in the police or military but across the entire employment spectrum.  

To accelerate this process, many governments worldwide have implemented public policies that have had different effects on female advancement into leadership positions. Some policies challenge the leadership and representation issue directly via quotas, while others such as the paid paternity leave help lay the groundwork for female leadership indirectly by enabling women to stay in the workplace after becoming mothers.

Iceland is the real-life example of a government that has combined a paid non-transferable paternity leave and gender quotas. It has been rated the world’s most gender-equal country for nine years in a row, which is attributed to the public policies that have been passed in the last decade. The ‘Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men’ established in 2000, guides the government and businesses for achieving gender equality. This act includes a 40% gender quota for any public company, a transparency law that requires proof of equal rate for equal work and paid paternity leave for a minimum of three months.

Sri Lanka has done well on some gender outcomes but these are insufficient to deal with the widening gaps in a modern context. Given its fast-ageing population, initiating policies that will get more women involved in the economy could add as much as 2% to GDP over the next decade, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Using policy to take away barriers can bring social and economic progress that Sri Lankan women not only deserve but have worked hard to earn. To really make a difference Sri Lanka needs to reach the point where the appointment of women to top positions stops grabbing headlines and is treated as normal inclusivity at work.

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