Sri Lanka’s Peace Initiatives: The Challenge of Women’s Political Representation

Sri Lanka achieved a remarkable milestone in 1960 when Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first democratically elected female prime minister. With female literacy rates exceeding 92% and women making up 56% of registered voters, one might expect women to hold significant political power in the country. Yet the reality tells a different story. Women’s representation in Parliament has never exceeded 7% throughout Sri Lanka’s electoral history since 1931. This paradox reveals how deeply entrenched barriers prevent women from translating educational achievement and voting power into political leadership, with serious consequences for the nation’s peace process.

The gap between progress and representation 🔗

The numbers paint a troubling picture. In the 2020 parliamentary elections, women held just over 5% of elected seats. This placed Sri Lanka at 182nd out of 193 countries on the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global ranking of women in national parliaments. Even among South Asian neighbors, Sri Lanka lagged behind, performing worse than India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

While the November 2024 elections brought a record-breaking 22 women to Parliament, this still represents a modest increase. The disconnect between women’s educational achievements and their absence from political decision-making rooms has created what researchers call structural exclusion. Women face multiple barriers including the high costs of campaigning across large electoral districts, political party gatekeeping, and a 5% electoral threshold that disadvantages candidates without extensive patronage networks.

Silenced voices at the peace table 🔗

When Sri Lanka engaged in formal peace negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the early 2000s, women were notably absent from the main discussions. All formal peace talks were conducted by male politicians. Women’s participation was relegated to the margins, limited primarily to a gender sub-committee established in December 2002 during the Oslo peace talks.

The Sub-Committee on Gender Issues brought together five women from civil society who worked to ensure women’s perspectives were included in post-conflict planning. They developed recommendations covering resettlement, personal security, infrastructure, livelihoods, and political representation. However, this committee existed parallel to, rather than integrated within, the main negotiation framework. The formal talks eventually stalled, and the gender sub-committee’s memorandum became the only agreement reached with the LTTE.

A single voice trying to bridge the gap 🔗

Near the end of the peace process, negotiators brought in one Tamil-speaking Muslim woman MP in a last-ditch effort to revive stalled discussions. This tokenistic inclusion highlighted how women were seen as supplements rather than essential participants in shaping Sri Lanka’s future. The exclusion meant that experiences unique to women during conflict-displacement, gender-based violence, loss of livelihoods, and the burden of single-handedly sustaining families-were not adequately addressed in peace frameworks.

Courage under fire: Sarojini Yogeswaran’s legacy 🔗

In 1998, Sarojini Yogeswaran made history by becoming Jaffna’s first elected woman mayor in 14 years. A member of the Tamil United Liberation Front, she assumed office in March 1998 with plans to initiate reconstruction and rehabilitation in a city devastated by conflict. Her husband, former MP Vettrivelu Yogeswaran, had been assassinated by the LTTE in 1989. Despite knowing the risks, she chose to serve her community.

On May 17, 1998, Sarojini Yogeswaran was shot five times near her home while meeting with constituents. She died on the way to the hospital. The Sankiliyan Force, believed to be an LTTE front organization, claimed responsibility. The LTTE had opposed local elections and warned elected officials not to assume power. Yogeswaran’s assassination sent a chilling message about the dangers women politicians faced in conflict zones.

Yet her legacy endured. Women in the north-east continued to contest elections despite threats and violence. Her courage became a symbol of women’s determination to participate in governance even when facing deadly opposition. Her story illustrates both the vital role women can play in post-conflict reconstruction and the extreme risks they face when patriarchal and militant forces resist their leadership.

The battle for electoral reform 🔗

For nearly two decades, women’s organizations and activists campaigned for quotas to address the severe underrepresentation in politics. Their efforts culminated in the Local Authorities Elections Amendment Act of 2016, which mandated a 25% quota for women in local government. The 2018 local elections saw women’s representation surge from 2% to over 22%.

However, activists identified critical weaknesses in the legislation. The original proposal included a 40% mandatory quota for youth candidates, but this was replaced with a discretionary provision covering both women and youth. Women’s groups argued that the quota should be mandatory and specific to women alone, not combined with youth as a category.

Legal challenges and missed opportunities 🔗

When activists challenged the watered-down provisions, the Supreme Court upheld the existing framework. More problematically, Section 65AA of the ordinance includes loopholes that allow political parties to bypass the quota if they fail to secure minimum vote thresholds or seats in local bodies. This exemption means many local authorities never achieve the intended 25% representation.

The quota system also lacks enforcement mechanisms at the national level. While local government has seen improvements, Parliament remains without legally enforceable quotas. Political parties maintain control over candidate selection, and women continue to be placed in unwinnable positions on party lists.

Post-war failures and unrealized potential 🔗

When Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, the country had a crucial opportunity to rebuild with greater equity and inclusion. Post-conflict transitions often provide openings to reshape political structures and address historical discrimination. Sri Lanka’s executive and judiciary, however, largely ignored gender inequality in their reconstruction efforts.

The Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission, established in 2010 to examine the conflict and chart a path forward, omitted gender perspectives from its analysis. Women who had sustained families and communities throughout the war, who experienced conflict differently than men, found their voices absent from official reconciliation narratives. The commission’s approach reflected broader patterns where women’s experiences were treated as secondary rather than central to understanding conflict and building sustainable peace.

By failing to leverage women’s knowledge and experiences, Sri Lanka missed the chance to create more inclusive governance structures. Research consistently shows that women’s participation in peace processes leads to more durable agreements and addresses root causes of conflict more effectively. Their exclusion from decision-making perpetuated the same power imbalances that contributed to instability.

Looking forward: Can promises become reality? 🔗

In 2023, Sri Lanka adopted its first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security for 2023-2027. The plan aims to increase women’s meaningful participation in all aspects of national life, protect their safety and wellbeing, and facilitate recovery for women affected by conflict. It represents recognition, at least on paper, that women’s leadership is essential for sustainable peace.

Yet plans mean little without implementation. The structural barriers remain: costly electoral systems that favor wealthy male candidates, political parties that gatekeep nominations, cultural norms that question women’s capacity to lead, and legal loopholes that undermine quotas. Without addressing these systemic issues, Sri Lanka will continue to waste the talents and perspectives of more than half its population.

The country’s history offers both caution and possibility. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s pioneering leadership showed what women could achieve. Sarojini Yogeswaran’s courage demonstrated women’s commitment to serving even in the face of violence. The gender sub-committee’s work proved that women could develop comprehensive policy frameworks when given the chance. These examples reveal untapped potential that remains largely unrealized.

What do you think? How can societies translate high female literacy and voter participation into meaningful political representation? What specific reforms would make quotas more effective in ensuring women’s voices shape peace and governance in post-conflict settings?

References

1. https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/sri-lanka/literacy-rate
2. https://elections.gov.lk/en/all_inclusive_election/all_inclusive_women_representation_E.html
3. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/sri-lanka/governance
4. https://www.ifes.org/publications/womens-political-representation-sri-lanka-electoral-system-analysis-and
5. https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/breakthrough-sri-lanka-peace-negotiations
6. https://community-democracies.org/women/kumi-samuel/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarojini_Yogeswaran
8. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad8a7.html
9. https://groundviews.org/2018/02/07/the-significance-of-the-25-quota-for-women-in-local-government/
10. https://www.themorning.lk/articles/z8HQJSap1KN9KoeLTUC4
11. https://www.peaceinsight.org/en/articles/omission-gender-sri-lanka-reconciliation-llrc/
12. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/op-ed/2025/12/womens-leadership-at-the-heart-of-lasting-peace
13. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/press-release/2023/03/sri-lanka-adopts-first-national-action-plan-on-women-peace-and-security