Gender mainstreaming in Sri Lanka, 1978-2015

Hettiarachchi, Shanthi Hemalatha

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming has been the most “modern” policy approach to gender equality, over the globe. It is also served as a policy strategy to ensure equality for women in society. Sri Lanka is seriously pondering into uplifting gender mainstreaming strategies in the 21st century. This study investigates the extent of development in gender mainstreaming in Sri Lanka during the period of 1978-2015. The main aim of the research was to examine nature and the adapting levels of gender mainstreaming during the period under investigation to explore related initiatives and their implementation in the country over three specific periods of time. To explore Sri Lanka’s progress, data were gathered through the documents focused on economic policy developed by government of Sri Lanka through documentary analysis with qualitative content and thematic analysis.

The study found that there are two types of key findings have emerged. The outcomes of the literature review and the findings of the analysis of policy documents could be classified into two categories; Although Sri Lanka has attempted to develop mainstream a gender perspective to a certain extent in its policy process, it seems to be that is not a genuine attempt toward gender mainstreaming as a new policy strategy and it has often focused substantially on gender mainstreaming in donor-funded projects and that Sri Lanka lacks a consistent, welldeveloped national policy on gender mainstreaming. The study reveals that Sri Lanka often mainstreams gender symbolically and as a result, most of the economic policies are gender blind. Moreover, none of the policy documents focus on women, who are engaged in the informal sector employment or cater women´s needs. Further, it is apparent that many of the documents are largely concerned with the ‘practical needs of women’ or ‘practical gender needs’ or ‘welfare programmes’ for women.

Citation

Hettiarachchi, S. H. (2023). Gender mainstreaming in Sri Lanka, 1978-2015. (Thesis). Keele University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2023
• Award Date: 2023-06