Education: Women dominate in Sri Lankan universities over men
While there are more educated women than men in Sri Lanka, this development impacts on the economy and when that happens, it’s the women who eventually suffer, according to Dr. (Ms) Sulochana Segera, Founder/Chairperson, Women in Management.
She was speaking at a media briefing to launch the ‘Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards Sri Lanka 2018’ held last week at Hilton Colombo.
More women are being empowered today, she said, adding: “Sorry to say this. Education of the men in this country is going down. Today women are dominating in the universities.”
She said that while they are happy about this gender imbalance, there is a dilemma: If the number of educated men reduces, the women are going to suffer as the economy cannot be run with less men than women.
“The specialty in our awards is we go to the villages and we bring everybody at one level. The women who are employed, who are doing business, the women who do social work, and the women who deal with the small boutique and all of them are in these awards.”
She explained how their movement began and the difficulties they encountered when she started it in 2011 when women in management were recognised and now it has gone global. Last January, ‘The Awards’ event was held in Canada with Sri Lankan-born women in Canada being recognised and another ‘Mini-awards would be held in Maldives in July this year.
There would be another mini-awards in Maldives this July, she said adding that they would be planning to have these awards in other countries too, thus they decided to go global. For them, she indicated that it was a challenge as most women’s organisations have come from abroad, “Nothing has gone from Sri Lanka. So, it was a challenge where we are going and how we are going to select and recognise women,” she pointed out.
At this media briefing, Ms Amena Arif, Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives, IFC (International Finance Corporation) spoke on equal opportunities, equal resources and equal choices of women. IFC is a long standing partner with WIM and said that this is a more critical time to invest in people, specially in women and girls.
She pointed out that gender equality is not just a social and moral imperative, but also an economic need as globally, women represent nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population, the world’s consumers and decision makers and yet account for only about 41 per cent of the formal workforce but women earn 10 – 30 per cent less than men.
In Sri Lanka formal female labour force participation dropped from 41 per cent in 2010 to about 36 per cent in 2016. Women are also disadvantaged by “glass ceiling” barriers in reaching the highest decision-making positions as a recent analysis done by IFC, in partnership with the Colombo Stock Exchange suggested that women constitute only about 8 per cent of all board positions in Sri Lanka while the global average – though a long way to go for an ideal situation – is still much higher at about 15 per cent, she pointed out.
She indicated that women are fundamental to transforming the global economy, supporting job creation, raising per-capita incomes, and promoting sustainable development.
IFC, she said firmly believes that the society cannot develop sustainably without ensuring the equal distribution of opportunities, resources and choices for both men and women. “We at IFC believe firmly that society cannot develop sustainably without ensuring the equal distribution of opportunities, resources, and choices for both men and women.”
She said that they have built a strong partnership with WIM to provide skill-building and training opportunities for women on corporate boards and women who lead, or work in corporate, micro and small businesses.