US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B. Teplitz said that Sri Lanka was behind the global average in female labor force participation.
She said the research had shown great potential globally for wealth creation from an increased role of women in the workforce. Teplitz was speaking at Hatch on December 12 at a Women Leaders in Business panel discussion.
Teplitz said,“Women in Sri Lanka currently make up 35 percent of the workforce. That number is low. The global average is 47 percent. Studies also show that female participation in companies outperforms those that are less diverse. So you want to address this bias. These organizations are more profitable at the end of the day.”
Teplitz said that women are found to invest 90 percent of their income back into their businesses and women are found to invest in the education of their families.
She said “There’s this unconscious bias. This is discussed in the United States but how do we bring the issue here and have a conversation. We have preconceived notions about the people with which we work. It requires a change in our communities. This is not something we have alone as individuals.”
“These biases are not limited to just men or any other group. How many women do you know in construction or engineering? Many women assume that it is not feminine to do those tasks. That is unconscious bias. Women are limiting themselves.”
Chief Economic Officer US Embassy in Sri Lanka, Susan Walke said “Men will apply for a job if they are 70 percent sure that they are ready but a woman will wait till she is a 110 percent ready for the job.”
Chairperson of Women in Management Sulochana Segera who had worked in recruitment said “They are not looking for an employee but for a male for jobs. It is not about males or females being competent. They always ask women how to balance work and life. They don’t ask men even though they are also husbands and fathers.” Segera felt that the management did not care about the actual completion of the task required but the filling of a role in a societally accepted manner.
CoFounder GoodMarket Achala Samaradivakara said “When you look at good market environment with 1,200 businesses inside the majority are females. They are doing really well.”
Director Selyn, Selyna Peiris said a current crisis impacting the region of Kurunagala was debt. She said “They are crippled by debt and in the worst cases there are suicides. It impacts rural women and men.” Selyna works in partnership with SANASA to help foster savings. Selyna said she had seen instances were newly married women were prevented from working by their in-laws and then later sent to work in the Middle-East. Selyna identified a lack of financial literacy and societal norms wherein women do not work as being behind the large exodus of Sri Lankan mothers to the Middle East.
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