Women’s Forum 2020: ‘When women advance, so does society: Return on investment for Sri Lanka’

The impact of women’s advancements in society through empowerment strategies represents both immediate and long-term investments with transformative impacts for economic and social sustainability and beyond.  While many workplace organisations see recruiting women merely as costs due to maternity leave, high transportation expenses, and childcare issues, they fail to calculate the contributions women make toward productivity, overall cost savings, accountability, and workplace well-being through women’s insights, labour, and collaborative and co-operative leadership styles. Similarly, the dominant societal perceptions of women in Sri Lanka which confine their roles to motherhood and unskilled labour, overlook their value and the realities of their contributions.

The panel discussion of the Women’s Forum 2020 will focus on Women’s Empowerment and Return on Investment (ROI). Women in Management Sri Lanka Founder/Chairperson Dr. Sulochana Segera is to moderate the forum, while the panel will comprise John Keells Holdings PLC Executive Vice President and Property Group Sri Lanka Chief Marketing Officer Roshanie Jayasunedera, McLarens Group Sri Lanka Joint Managing Director Shehara Jayawardena, Sri Lanka Law College Notary Public and Commissioner for Oaths Legal Affairs DIG and Ajith Rohana, Attorney-at-Law, and Commercial Bank Deputy Chairman Preethi Jayawardena. 

The Women’s Forum will be a part of the sixth World Conference on Women’s Studies (WCWS 2020) which will be held on the 28– 30 May 2020 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Conference is organised by the International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM) on the theme ‘Overcoming Women’s Subordination: Socialisation, Law, and Structural Inequalities’. WCWS 2020 brings together women from various fields, ages and walks of life in order to learn from and empower each other to make the world a better place for girls and women. It also provides a number of opportunities to showcase their research, celebrate achievements, become inspired, network, and engage in both personal and professional development.

The Conference is co–hosted by Bridgewater State University, USA, and University of Sri Jayewardenepura Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Centre for Multidisciplinary Research. The academic partners for WCWS 2020 are the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR) and University Brunei Darussalam in Brunei. The strategic partners for WCWS 2020 are the Women’s International Foundation (WFO) and its media partner Lanka Women.

The Conference is to be chaired by Bridgewater State University, USA’s Journal of International Women’s Studies Department of Anthropology Professor and Chairperson Diana J. Fox, PhD. The keynote address will be presented by social entrepreneur and award-winning scholar Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar and gender specialist and feminist activist Jayanthi Kuru Utumpala, the first Sri Lankan woman to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.