Getting In and Staying In
Increasing Women’s Labor Force Participation In Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka hosts the 20th largest gender gap in labor force participation (LFP) globally, which presents significant challenges to its growth and equity goals. This is surprising given Sri Lanka’s longstanding achievements in human development outcomes and its standing as a middle-income country. The 2010 LFP rate among women over age 15 in Sri Lanka was 41 percent, versus 82 percent for men of the same age. In contrast, women’s 2010 LFP rates in Thailand and Malaysia were 80 and 57 percent, respectively. By examining gender norms about work, this report explores why, compared to men, women are well educated but less commonly working for pay in Sri Lanka. It then identifies means of promoting women’s entry into and continued employment in the labor market.
Authors: Soham Sen, Jennifer Solotaroff, Anne Kuriakose, Susrutha Goonesekera, George Joseph, Mohamed Ghani Razaak