Female Under-representation in Government and its Socio-economic Impact

Broadcast live on Advocata’s YouTube channel on 6 September 2020, this discussion examined why so few women hold political office in Sri Lanka and what that under-representation actually costs the country economically and socially, rather than treating it as simply a fairness issue. The panel brought together Dr. Sujata Gamage, an Advocata Advisor, alongside social entrepreneur and activist Vraie Cally Balthazaar, Lihini Fernando — an Attorney at Law, women’s activist, and elected member of the Moratuwa Municipal Council — and marketer and corporate trainer Sherien Perera, moderated by Research Executive Sathya Karunarathne. Fernando’s presence as a sitting local councillor gave the discussion a first-hand, practitioner’s perspective on the structural barriers women actually face once elected, not just in getting elected. The main highlight was the panel’s specific focus on gender-discriminatory and gender-insensitive laws and policies — provisions that on paper appear neutral but function in practice to keep women out of political life or undermine their effectiveness once in office — and how these compound into the broader socio-economic cost of excluding half the population’s perspective and talent from national decision-making, a theme that anchored much of Advocata’s later work through the Women’s Policy Action Network.