Gender roles in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan woman and child

All ethnic groups in Sri Lanka sometimes have distinctions regarding the roles of the sexes. Sri Lanka was the first nation in the world to elect a female head of state—Srimavo Bandaranaike won the election in 1960 after the preceding leader, her husband, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was murdered by a spy dressed as a Buddhist Monk.

While Sri Lanka excels when it comes to gender equality indices, there are still many underlying issues pertaining to gender inequality in Sri Lanka.^[1]

Many Women in Sri Lanka choose to work, whilst some choose to work in the home, and care for children. In families relying on agriculture, women are in charge of weeding and help with the harvest, and, among poor families, women also perform full-time work for the more well-to-do. The man's role used to be seen to provide his family with material support, and in this role men and look after business.

At the center of the hierarchy are children, who mix freely and receive a great deal of affection from both sexes. Among the middle- and upper-income groups, education of children may last into their early twenties, and women may mix with males or even take on jobs that were in the past reserved for men. For poorer income children, they may go to work earlier.

Further reading

• Perera-Desilva, Vidarshani Nadeesha (January 2015). "Psychological counselling for women garment factory workers of Sri Lanka". Asian Journal of Women's Studies (Taylor and Francis) 21 (1): 65–76. doi:10.1080/12259276.2015.1029231.

References

1. "Gender Inequality Index (GII) | Human Development Reports". hdr.undp.org. Retrieved 2015-10-22.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. (Data as of 1988.)

External links

• පශ්චාද් වෛදික යුගයේ කාන්තාව