GENDER EQUITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA: A MISMATCH BETWEEN ACCESS AND OUTCOMES

McGill Journal of Education, Fall 2003 by Gunawardena, Chandra

ABSTRACT. Sri Lanka has attempted to ensure gender equity in higher education through a non-discriminatory educational policy. Half a century after the establishment of the first university in Sri Lanka, women students have secured a majority of enrolments except in engineering and related fields. But women's achievements in respect of access and participation have not guaranteed equity in outcomes. University-educated women still continue to be unemployed for longer periods, to be employed in lower positions and face difficulties in gaining entry to management positions.

EGALITE ENTRE LES SEXES EN ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR AU SRI LANKA : DESEQUILIBRE ENTRE L'ACCES ET LES RESULTATS

RESUME. Le Sri Lanka a tente d'assurer l'egalite entre les sexes en enseignement superieur en adoptant une politique non discriminatoire dans le domaine de l'education. Un demi-siecle apres la creation de la premiere universite au Sri Lanka, les etudiantes sont maintenant en majorite saufen genie et dans les domaines connexes. Mais les realisations des femmes liees a l'acces et a la participation n'ont pas garanti l'equite dans les resultats. Les femmes ayant frequente l'universite continuent d'etre sans emploi pendant des periodes plus longues, d'occuper des postes de niveau inferieur et de faire face a des difficultes pour atteindre des postes de gestion.

Introduction

This article analyzes statistical data and reviews a number of studies on university education in Sri Lanka to identify trends in women's enrollment in different fields of study. It also examines the match between women's participation on the one hand, and women graduates' employment status and ability to gain entry to management positions.

Sri Lanka, in contrast to her South Asian neighbours, has made much headway in the area of women's education. Her progress towards a more equal education for men and women started prior to independence. In 1931 together with the grant of partial sovereignty, universal suffrage was also granted and all those over 21 years of age, irrespective of sex, became eligible to vote. From 1945, an educational policy that was non-discriminatory towards either sex sought to provide free primary, secondary and higher education. In subsequent years this policy was buttressed by such incentives as scholarships for the needy, free school meals, free textbooks and free uniforms. The demand for education spurred on by these incentives was met by an island-wide network of primary schools and the establishment of well equipped Central Schools, mainly in rural areas with hostel facilities which provided education in Science, Arts and Commerce up to University Entrance.

These progressive policies in education were introduced to a cultural milieu of a mixed ethno-religious population. The majority of the population of the country was Buddhists, the adherents of a religion that was considered to accord equality of status to men and women. Rigid structures that restrict the movement of women in the educational, social and political arenas were, to a certain extent, absent in ancient Sri Lanka. Women enjoyed respect in the role of wife and mother in a close-knit family structure. The Buddhist tradition mentions famous Buddhist women being given the opportunity and being capable of making their worth felt in various avenues of life. But religion also stressed women's inferior and subservient role, evident in the custom that the father is obliged to support his daughter until she is married and also to arrange a suitable marriage and to provide a dowry for her. Kandyan Sinhalese laws of inheritance contain inequalities and even in the other two ethnic groups/religions similar inequities are seen.

The expansion of education without gender discrimination made women eligible to compete in the labour market on an equal footing with men. In the 1960s and 1970s the deterioration of the economic situation of the country, which made it increasingly difficult for a male breadwinner to support the family alone, necessitated a transformation of the economic role of women.

In Sri Lanka the proportion of women enrolled as students at university increased steadily from 1942 (the year of establishment of the University of Ceylon) until 1973 when the percentage had risen to 40.6, around which their representation became more or less stabilized. In 2001, the percentage was 51.7 (University Grants Commission, 2002). Much concern was being expressed, however, about the relatively low representation of women, in all scientific fields excluding medicine.

Table 1 indicates the representation of women in the University of Ceylon from 1942, the year of establishment in selected years until 1965.

Table 1 indicates how gradually the percentage of women increased from 10.1 in 1942 to 42.7 in 1965. Jayasuriya (1965) attributed the steady increase of female enrolment to a variety of factors such as 'limited opportunities available to women in higher education other than in universities, the greater diligence of girls, persistence of women rather than men students, their keenness to study and willingness to forego other satisfactions for the sake of education and the gradual breakdown of the traditional concepts of womanhood and marriage which has created a new social and economic role for the women as breadwinning partner'.