Women’s participation in government and business leadership.

A wonderful remarkable memory which is Sri Lanka has because of a woman who had own the country for three times. Honorable Prime Minister Mrs. Srimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was the woman who created spaces for women to take part in Sri Lankan government and government sectors. However, women in Sri Lanka do not have the freedom or opportunity to be in government nowadays. At the same time, most of the women are who ever have courage and capacity to engage with business industry they do not able to take part on it because they are women. According to the current government of Sri Lanka, only 5.8% is women participation, in provincial government 5% and 1.8% is in local government. Though the women have the small part of places for their participation in the government sectors still they do not able to raise their voices. Again, in the business sectors women do not have higher positions in Sri Lanka which reflect that women do not get their equal rights as men do.

Basically, Sri Lanka does not have key clash with women discrimination as like as Afghanistan or other middles east countries do. However, due to the Sri Lankan civil war most of the Tamil women do not able to take part in the government and business sectors. The main reason which I realize is those Tamil women were afraid to work in the government sectors due to the thread of Sri Lankan forces. World cannot avoid the ugly truth that Tamil women by saying that they do not have brave or power to be in higher position because most of the women have been in to Sri Lanka’s liberation war by supporting Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam.

In order to evaluate the situation of Sri Lankan women issues with my real life, I had a bad experience on it. I study at Asian University for Women which is at Bangladesh and I found an internship at Sri Lankan parliament this year (2012). However, the people whoever in the process to select the candidates rejected my application because I do not able to work at parliament because I am a woman. Adding to that, my family includes my society did not accept me to work in the parliament because they think that government high positions only for men not for women. Take an example of my own experience clearly shows women’s situation and participation on government and business sectors.
As a educated young girl, what I would like to suggest to the government and World leaders at Rio+20 is that first, give a chance to women and let them to make changes in the country. People whoever in the power should not assume that women cannot do anything without giving a chance to women. “Women are state’s pillars” is a proverb which promotes women is important for countries. Government should make some policies which encourage women to take part in government and show their leadership talent to world.
In addition, to that government and business places should allocate equal percentages to women to be in positions and superior powers should give all kind of work to women. For instance, in the parliament women are not expect to be as speaker because most of the politicians think that women do not able to manage the parliament activities and they are not strong enough.
In the conclusion, I would like to state that women can change the world within a minute because they have the power and courage. However, this patriarchal society will not accept women to be in first place and will not allow them to make changes. As I have mentioned above that women should need to get equal percentages in each and every where such as, government and business sectors. With the help of World leaders at Rio+20 I hope we can make changes in our own countries, then automatically, the world will adopt the changes.