By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK | 3 October 2024 (IDN) — On September 23, 2024, Sri Lanka witnessed a historic moment as Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) was sworn in as the nation’s president. This marked the first time since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 that voters elected a candidate outside the country’s traditional ruling elite.
As Sri Lanka’s president, his first action was to appoint Harini Amarasuriya as the country’s new prime ministeron September 24, 2024, making her the first woman in 24 years to hold this position.
In his inaugural address to the nation on the night of September 25, 2024, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated, “The women in our community, who make up over 52% of our population, play a vital role in both the economy and the social fabric of our country. We are actively working to enhance women’s representation across all institutions. As a testament to our commitment, we have already appointed a woman as Prime Minister.”
This move brought hope to many Sri Lankans, especially women, who make up the majority of the country’s population of approximately 23.1 million but encounter significant gender barriers to political representation.
Women also constitute over half of the electorate, with nearly 9 million out of 17 million eligible voters. However, there were no female candidates in the recent presidential election. This highlights a major gap in female political representation, which is particularly striking given the 91.7% literacy rate among women in the country.
As of 2020, women’s representation in parliament in the Asia-Pacific region was 20%, below the global average of 25%. In Sri Lanka, women’s political representation is even lower, with women never exceeding 7% of national legislators since 1931. Before the parliament was dissolved on September 25, 2024, women constituted only 5.3% of Parliament members in Sri Lanka (12 out of 225), with no representation from Tamil or Muslim minority groups.
Struggle to achieve gender equality
Sri Lanka struggles to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality (SDG 5), particularly in national parliaments, ranking 179th out of 189 countries for female representation. This is significantly lower than many Asian nations such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste, which have over 20% female representation. These statistics emphasize the urgent need for increased efforts to promote gender equality in Sri Lankan politics.
The appointment of Harini Amarasuriya as Sri Lanka’s prime minister is a historic milestone, like Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s election in 1960 as the world’s first female prime minister, but it holds significance for a different reason.
Harini Amarasuriya is the first female prime minister of Sri Lanka not from a political dynasty. This represents a significant shift in Sri Lanka’s political landscape, highlighting the potential for women leaders from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds.
Women across Asia often face substantial challenges, including gender discrimination, political instability, political violence, and societal expectations. Due to these high barriers, there have been limited pathways for women to enter politics in Asia. Consequently, many women in Asia have entered politics primarily through political dynasties.
Notable female leaders include Indira Gandhi (India), Corazon Aquino (Philippines), Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga (Sri Lanka), and Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar). These leaders often inherited their positions through family connections, which helped them navigate the political landscape and gain acceptance and respect from society and their male counterparts.
In Sri Lankan politics, family support structures play a significant role in the success of women, especially those with family political connections. This support acts as a safety net in the absence of formal mechanisms to protect women candidates. Gender-based violence remains a significant issue, with reports of physical attacks, sexual bribes for nominations, and increased online violence against women candidates.
Need to change the family support culture
The country, the government, and the society must change this culture and take all possible actions to create an environment where Sri Lankan women from all walks of life, including minority groups such as Tamils and Muslims, can enter politics without fear of losing their lives, property, or dignity.
Creating a safe political space free from political and gender-based violence is critical for encouraging women from diverse backgrounds, including minorities like Tamils and Muslims, to participate in Sri Lankan politics. This requires formal and informal mechanisms to ensure the safety and security of female candidates, with active involvement from political leaders, communities, and government authorities.
Developing and implementing party-specific gender policies and strategies, along with a common code of conduct across all political parties, would be vital starting points to increase women’s participation in political leadership.
Many countries, including Argentina, France, India, Mexico, Nepal, Rwanda, and Spain, have implemented gender quotas to boost women’s representation in parliament. The 25% quota for women’s representation in local government, mandated by the Local Authorities (Amendment) Act, No. 1 of 2016, marked a significant milestone in Sri Lankan politics, although it did not achieve the anticipated outcomes.
To improve women’s representation at all levels of government, a similar strategy should be implemented, ideally mandating gender-balanced candidate lists with a 50:50 ratio of men to women. Effective implementation is crucial, involving legal and regulatory measures to ensure political parties comply, and establishing independent bodies to monitor and evaluate these efforts.
Challenge structural inequalities
Several countries, including France, Belgium, and Spain, have implemented incentives or sanctions to promote gender-balanced candidate lists in politics. Implementing similar measures in Sri Lanka could enhance gender equality in politics, but would require strong enforcement mechanisms, political will, legal reforms, and public awareness campaigns to be effective.
Introducing gender-balanced candidate lists alone will not ensure full and effective participation of women in Sri Lankan politics, as these quotas often favor women from elite backgrounds, lacking diversity.
To address this, the government should implement strategies to challenge structural inequalities, including funding for training on gender sensitivity, diversity, and unconscious biases, and providing resources to enhance women’s political skills and leadership capabilities.
The media in Sri Lanka can play a crucial role in increasing women’s participation in politics. Equal media coverage for women candidates and elected representatives, supported by legislation and media codes of conduct, can create a more supportive environment and enhance gender balance in political representation.
This must be done alongside public awareness campaigns about the importance of gender equality in politics to garner public support, especially among men.
I am optimistic that Harini Amarasuriya’s appointment as Prime Minister will encourage more nominations of women from all political parties for the upcoming parliamentary election on November 14, 2024. Political party leaders must urgently address the minimal participation of women, the majority gender group, in national political leadership.
This moment presents an opportunity for the country, its people, and political parties to reflect on the importance of including women in national policymaking and rebuilding efforts.
As a Sri Lankan woman aspiring for more diverse and inclusive political leadership, I believe that our new President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has the potential to champion gender equality in Sri Lanka. His leadership could drive advancements in gender parity and women’s rights, creating a more supportive environment for women in politics and encouraging greater gender balance in political representation.
The fact that women make up only 5.3% of the Sri Lankan Parliament, despite comprising 52% of the population, is unacceptable and must change!
*Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. She is a dedicated human rights activist and a strong advocate for gender equality and the advancement of women.
The author expressed her views in this article in an entirely unofficial, private, and personal capacity. These views do not reflect those of any organization. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya is seen with the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during her swearing-in ceremony, in Colombo on September 24, 2024. Source: The Hindu.