Editorial - The virtues of women’s liberation

In the west and most of the countries women today are playing more powerful and dynamic roles in society, much in contrast to the male chauvinism that had prevailed since ancient times. Equality and equal opportunities have been given to women in these countries while  the worldwide Anglican Church, in one of its most enlightened moves, is even ordaining women priests.

While there are more women than men in the world there are many sectors worldwide where women are not given an equal place. For instance in the Fortune 500 companies—the 500 biggest profit-making companies in the world—only about 25 are headed by women chief executive officers. In many other areas too some degree of male chauvanism or domination still prevails but thankfully intensified efforts are being made to provide equal opportunities with many even insisting on gender-friendly language and the avoidance of stereotyped phrases like deadlier than the male or hell has no fury like a woman.   

What is the situation in Sri Lanka? Here too the female population is more than the male. Sri Lanka also has the historic honour of giving the world its first women prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike who was virtually forced out of Rosmeid Place to revive the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and she rose to such an extent that in 1976 she became the chairperson of the Non-Alligned Movement comprising of more than 100 countries after NAM held its Summit here in 1976. But in Parliament, Provincial Councils and other local councils only about 10 percent of the members are women and equal rights campaigners are pushing for at least 30 percent to be women. Even in state or private sector enterprises the number headed by women is relatively small and it would be good to have more women CEOs or heads of corporations because among other virtues they are known to be less corrupt than men and this is important because corruption has reached crisis proportion in Sri Lanka.

Another key area where women play a major but often negative role is the job market in the Middle-East and other countries. Economists say these expatriate workers, a large majority of them women, contribute about US$ 6 billion a year officially to the country’s vital foreign exchange reserves. Unofficially remittances are known to be much higher but whatever it is the bigger question is whether the Sri Lanka government is providing adequate protection and rewards to these hard-working young women who leave their children here to earn a living for their families and in many cases there have been serious family problems because of the long absence of the mother and wife.         

One of the main reasons for the lack of protection of Sri Lankan women working in the Middle-East and elsewhere is the failure of Sri Lanka’s diplomatic missions in those countries to take adequate measures for the protection of Sri Lankan women. This is largely because the growing number of Sri Lankan missions are headed by political appointees who have little or no diplomatic skills and experience. The Minister in charge of Foreign Employment and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment have promised effective action specially relating to the thousands of women who have been known to be working illegally in countries like Saudi Arabia and face the danger of suffering the same fate as Rizana Nafeek.

 If we have more women MPs and local council members and women as heads of important institutions it will be a major step towards giving equality and protection to women till we reach the vision of Mahatma Gandhi who said that there would be true freedom in the country only when a girl is able to walk on a highway at midnight without fear.