Published in Ceylon Today
Professor Savitri Gunasekara gave an illuminating address at the SLWC on the 21st of March, 2015. Her topic was 'Visible and Invisible', and she in this framework outlined for us the history of the status of women and their political & social recognition; and the status quo regarding women's rights in contemporary Sri Lanka.
Professor Gunasekara's chosen title perfectly highlighted the paradox women as a gender face in the world today, and especially in Sri Lanka, which is known universally as the first country to have a female national leader: Prime Minister Sirimavo Ratwatte Bandaranaike.
This visible and well-known fact is often cited as an example of Sri Lanka's claim to feminist fame, and it is assumed that a nation where women can be elected leaders must of course be a nation where women are intrinsically appreciated, recognised, promoted and valued as equals by their male counterparts.
This assumption is not accurate.
What would be occurring if this was true would be extremely visible: women at all levels of society would be aware of their legal rights as well as their responsibilities, financially literate, and aware that they could make independent choices regarding if, when and with whom to have relationships and bear children without family pressure, and without sacrificing the other roles they wanted to perform in life.
Women's biological role and reproductive capacity is seen and very visibly recognised: Professor Gunasekara made the point very clearly that women as mothers are venerated in this country, which is itself called 'The Motherland' by many citizens. But this recognition and respect are too often limited to the childbearing role of a woman.
Women as human beings wishing to enter partnership with men as girlfriends, sweethearts and lovers are in comparatively very difficult terrain. The paradox is particularly obvious in the advertisements and photo spreads in magazines and on television: the public faces of wonderfully pretty girls and lovely women, interesting because they are so attractive. And we find them attractive, as scientific research informs us, because their glossy hair, glowing complexions, bright eyes and rounded bodies are manifestly symptoms of fertility - and thus marriageability.
This is the 'Happy Ever After' scenario.
Yet the statistics for reported physical, verbal & emotional abuse and domestic violence within marital relationships and romantic/sexual relationships are hidden: and they are extremely high.
Many of our young women are still told and believe that marriage is the best and most fulfilling of occupations, for all women. The younger the woman, the less life experience she is likely to have had: so many girls forego fulfilling & expansive alternative life paths out of ignorance.
There are many romantic myths and sentimental fantasies centred on falling in love and having children, on living happily ever after and on being partnered for life with one's soul mate. Many contemporary industries profit from this eternal human quest: astrology horoscopes, fashion, makeup, fitness, Valentine's Day, jewellery, adornment, dating agencies, tele-summits on 'Calling In The One', counselling, and wedding planning.
But those who fail to achieve the dream, or are failed by the myths of the society, are not so visible: battered women do not live long lives, or happy ones, and their futures are cut short. Women's and children's refuges are not in the public eye, and are extremely underfunded. The need for their existence is often denied: the call for women's rights and children's rights as part of human rights is called a 'Western feminist' concept - and a divisive one. The concept of the 'Sinhala lion' has traditionally left no room for acknowledgment of the Sinhala lioness.
Professor Gunasekara informed us that equality of women was in fact an inherent fact in Sri Lankan society in the time of the Buddha. Women were equal seekers for knowledge, wisdom and Enlightenment, and equal as students: in speech and in conversation. Sri Lankan women had gained the right to vote before their British sisters, in 1931.
She described her own generation as being blessed to attend university in an atmosphere of freedom and inclusiveness, where students from all backgrounds could meet and come to know each other as professional equals, where divisions of socio-economic status and class were often privately questioned and replaced by civilised sensitivity to disparity.
The Free Education legislation of 1948 did not differentiate between the genders and mentioned no special provisions for women because none were needed! Equality and the respect and dignity it encompasses were part of being a Sri Lankan.
This generation, their academic potential supported through free nationwide education, went on to become successful and productive throughout the world, in many countries. The professional women emerging in this era in fields of law, education, business, medicine, social work and other fields were able to work in ways that fulfilled their intellectual potential; greatly enriched and enhanced the societies in which they worked; and also raise children who had access to the very best opportunities the world could offer any individual in terms of higher education and professional and personal development.
Yet in more recent times, these values and with them the status and dignity of women have been increasingly unrecognised, and their potential and capability often eroded. There is evidence that the concepts of equality inherent in a democratic social republic are not being translated into reality.
There is a marked gap between the spoken Rhetoric and the lived Reality.
Professor Gunasekara pointed out that, since Sri Lanka is a signatory to international Human Rights legislation, violations to the equal status and dignity of women ranging from sexual assault, abuse, domestic violence, harassment and gender discrimination, are a violation of International Law. The terminology of Equality is actually meaningless unless publicly invisible and unacknowledged discrimination is addressed - and addressed concertedly and systematically, systemically throughout all levels of our society.
Women at university & college level need to be seen as sisters and as fellow-students, so that disincentives to their confidence and progress, such as the differential targeted ragging of female students at universities (illegal since 1998) do not flourish in a culture of misogyny. Students with great potential are often intimidated and discouraged by the awareness that the bad treatment they are subjected to is overlooked or dismissed as something inherent in the society that they must learn to accept.
If ragging is seen as in effect an acceptable initiation process into university life, what challenges can a young professional woman look forward to, if this scarring and traumatic experience is the threshold of her future?
Women need to be seen as sisters and daughters in professional fields, and in the corporate world, so that their creativity and dedication to development of their professional skills can be supported, mentored and encouraged by their professional leaders & superiors without exploitation and hypocrisy.
She spoke of the Family Values promoted publicly by those who govern us politically, and also reinforced by advertising and media, with their hypnotic & suggestive images selling milk powder, children's food and baby products: enforcing the role of woman as nurturer, as the source of life and nourishment. Yet this positioning places almost total responsibility for the functioning of the family on the woman - who often, today, juggles competing roles in & outside the home in order to balance the family budget and make sure no one goes unsupported in her domain.
This obsessive focus on woman as provider of emotional and nutritional nourishment actually erodes the man's participation in child-rearing and destabilises the functioning of the family. For which women are then often held responsible - which is to say, blamed.
Women can be treated with respect as collaborators and colleagues, and come to be known for their diversity of capabilities in a more truly equal society. Invisible discrimination can be treated as unacceptable and so go unrewarded. Visible abuse and discrimination, in the public sphere, can only be treated as unacceptable when offenders do not go virtually unpunished.
The gap between Rhetoric and Reality in relation to gender equality should be and can be diminished. The whole country and every citizen will benefit, from this systemic realignment. And be able to relate to others with capability and confidence, as true equals on the world stage.
Yet the statistics for reported physical, verbal & emotional abuse and domestic violence within marital relationships and romantic/sexual relationships are hidden: and they are extremely high.
Many of our young women are still told and believe that marriage is the best and most fulfilling of occupations, for all women. The younger the woman, the less life experience she is likely to have had: so many girls forego fulfilling & expansive alternative life paths out of ignorance.
There are many romantic myths and sentimental fantasies centred on falling in love and having children, on living happily ever after and on being partnered for life with one's soul mate. Many contemporary industries profit from this eternal human quest: astrology horoscopes, fashion, makeup, fitness, Valentine's Day, jewellery, adornment, dating agencies, tele-summits on 'Calling In The One', counselling, and wedding planning.
But those who fail to achieve the dream, or are failed by the myths of the society, are not so visible: battered women do not live long lives, or happy ones, and their futures are cut short. Women's and children's refuges are not in the public eye, and are extremely underfunded. The need for their existence is often denied: the call for women's rights and children's rights as part of human rights is called a 'Western feminist' concept - and a divisive one. The concept of the 'Sinhala lion' has traditionally left no room for acknowledgment of the Sinhala lioness.
Professor Gunasekara informed us that equality of women was in fact an inherent fact in Sri Lankan society in the time of the Buddha. Women were equal seekers for knowledge, wisdom and Enlightenment, and equal as students: in speech and in conversation. Sri Lankan women had gained the right to vote before their British sisters, in 1931.
She described her own generation as being blessed to attend university in an atmosphere of freedom and inclusiveness, where students from all backgrounds could meet and come to know each other as professional equals, where divisions of socio-economic status and class were often privately questioned and replaced by civilised sensitivity to disparity.
The Free Education legislation of 1948 did not differentiate between the genders and mentioned no special provisions for women because none were needed! Equality and the respect and dignity it encompasses were part of being a Sri Lankan.
This generation, their academic potential supported through free nationwide education, went on to become successful and productive throughout the world, in many countries. The professional women emerging in this era in fields of law, education, business, medicine, social work and other fields were able to work in ways that fulfilled their intellectual potential; greatly enriched and enhanced the societies in which they worked; and also raise children who had access to the very best opportunities the world could offer any individual in terms of higher education and professional and personal development.
Yet in more recent times, these values and with them the status and dignity of women have been increasingly unrecognised, and their potential and capability often eroded. There is evidence that the concepts of equality inherent in a democratic social republic are not being translated into reality.
There is a marked gap between the spoken Rhetoric and the lived Reality.
Professor Gunasekara pointed out that, since Sri Lanka is a signatory to international Human Rights legislation, violations to the equal status and dignity of women ranging from sexual assault, abuse, domestic violence, harassment and gender discrimination, are a violation of International Law. The terminology of Equality is actually meaningless unless publicly invisible and unacknowledged discrimination is addressed - and addressed concertedly and systematically, systemically throughout all levels of our society.
Women at university & college level need to be seen as sisters and as fellow-students, so that disincentives to their confidence and progress, such as the differential targeted ragging of female students at universities (illegal since 1998) do not flourish in a culture of misogyny. Students with great potential are often intimidated and discouraged by the awareness that the bad treatment they are subjected to is overlooked or dismissed as something inherent in the society that they must learn to accept.
If ragging is seen as in effect an acceptable initiation process into university life, what challenges can a young professional woman look forward to, if this scarring and traumatic experience is the threshold of her future?
Women need to be seen as sisters and daughters in professional fields, and in the corporate world, so that their creativity and dedication to development of their professional skills can be supported, mentored and encouraged by their professional leaders & superiors without exploitation and hypocrisy.
She spoke of the Family Values promoted publicly by those who govern us politically, and also reinforced by advertising and media, with their hypnotic & suggestive images selling milk powder, children's food and baby products: enforcing the role of woman as nurturer, as the source of life and nourishment. Yet this positioning places almost total responsibility for the functioning of the family on the woman - who often, today, juggles competing roles in & outside the home in order to balance the family budget and make sure no one goes unsupported in her domain.
This obsessive focus on woman as provider of emotional and nutritional nourishment actually erodes the man's participation in child-rearing and destabilises the functioning of the family. For which women are then often held responsible - which is to say, blamed.
Women can be treated with respect as collaborators and colleagues, and come to be known for their diversity of capabilities in a more truly equal society. Invisible discrimination can be treated as unacceptable and so go unrewarded. Visible abuse and discrimination, in the public sphere, can only be treated as unacceptable when offenders do not go virtually unpunished.
The gap between Rhetoric and Reality in relation to gender equality should be and can be diminished. The whole country and every citizen will benefit, from this systemic realignment. And be able to relate to others with capability and confidence, as true equals on the world stage.
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