Economically empowering Sri Lankan women: One strategy does not fit all

More than half the working population in Sri Lanka consists of women. But out of the total working age population, the share of employed women is only 18 percent. At the same time, around 80 percent of the economically active women of Sri Lanka are from the rural sector. 

The rural sector also records the highest unemployment rate for women, compared to other sectors. The unemployment rate among rural women is 7.3 percent, which is higher than the unemployment rates for both urban women (6.2 percent) and estate women (4.1 percent).

When empowering women economically, it is important to look at the differences in women’s needs and priorities from different settings in order to introduce more effective development efforts. For example, most of the rural women tend to engage in agricultural activities whereas the urban women are employed in the non-agricultural sector. Thus, rural and urban women need to be considered separately.      

As part of an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) recent study, women from both rural and urban communities were consulted to identify the factors that hinder them from being economically empowered. 

Barriers to economic empowerment 
Limited job opportunities for rural women; no flexibility for urban women: Even though there are scores of unemployed women who are willing to work in rural areas, there are only a few job opportunities for them at their villages. Many of them engage in agricultural activities as ‘contributing family members’ (involved in a family business or farming without payment), as they have no other choice. Men from the rural communities overcome this problem relatively easily by migrating to urban areas, where jobs are available. However, limitations in mobility, familial responsibilities and safety concerns prevent women, particularly married women and those with young children, from leaving their villages to search for jobs. 

On the contrary, when it comes to urban women, finding a job is not a difficult task, especially for young and unmarried women. But, married women with children from urban areas are concerned about the lack of flexibility in available job opportunities and their difficulties in balancing the job requirements and familial responsibilities. 

Padmini from Padaviya said, “Even though there are many women who are looking for jobs at our villages, there are no opportunities for them; not even a garment factory is nearby. Earlier, there were few garment factories but now they are 
not functioning.”

Rural women lack physical access to markets; all women need better negotiating skills: The community consultations carried out by the IPS during the study revealed that regardless of gender, those in rural areas have difficulty accessing markets. They find it challenging to sell their products at a fair price due to the heavy dependency on intermediaries and failure to establish reliable channels in accessing markets. That being said, women in these communities are even more disadvantaged than their male counterparts. Women find it more difficult to transport their produce to the urban areas (including loading and unloading, finding a suitable vehicle) and are pushed around more when it comes to negotiating. Comparatively, women from urban communities do not face such difficulties in accessing markets but they also lack negotiation skills, which is essential for effective market access.
Both rural and urban women lack financial literacy: There are many loan schemes operated by various parties (state banks, private banks, financial institutes and microfinance organisations), in all parts of Sri Lanka. However, due to tight procedural requirements of banks and other financial organisations (e.g., providing collaterals, finding state employees as guarantors), microfinance organisations are preferred; most of them target women with special loan schemes. 

However, most of the community members from rural as well as urban sectors are of the opinion that these loan schemes are not helping women improve their economic status but are ‘traps’ that weaken women’s economic advancement. 

This situation has arisen due to the lack of financial literacy and financial management skills of women. Nusra from Eravur said, “There are so many microfinance companies operating within villages and so many loan schemes are available 
for villagers. 

One loan is taken to settle another loan and another loan is taken to settle the second one. People have to work hard just to pay the interest. With this, women of these villages are more in debt than ever before.” “Relevant authorities should be informed about the disaster done by the micro credit companies in our communities.” Shanthi from Kaduwela said. 

Rural women lack access to training opportunities, urban women lack knowledge on training opportunities: Acquiring a recognized vocational training qualification is an important starting point in obtaining a good job or in starting a business. However, rural women find it difficult to attend such programmes, owing to lengthy travel times and transport costs as most of the vocational training programmes are conducted in urban areas. On the other hand, urban women lack knowledge and information about such programmes. 

Breaking down barriers
It is important to use different strategies when addressing the issues faced by women from different settings. A blanket approach will not be effective in this regard.

More opportunities, more flexibility: For women in rural areas, the availability of job opportunities is the priority. Women who participated in the community consultations from rural areas suggested setting up industries in close proximity, using resources available in the villages, to create more job opportunities especially for women. Work options such as flexible working hours and working from home can be introduced for women from urban areas. 

Better access, smarter negotiation: Rural women are mostly engaged in agriculture and self-employment and therefore, effective market access is crucial to selling their products at a 
reasonable price. 

The community members proposed establishing collecting centres at village levels and directly involving the government to buy the produce to facilitate market access. Attention should be given in developing negotiation skills of both rural and urban women as it has been shown that men tend to achieve better economic results in negotiation than women. 

Better management and understanding of finances: Though microfinance institutes and loan schemes offered by various institutions have widened credit access opportunities for women, women’s naivety about financial and credit management has prevented the effective use of these schemes. Awareness creation, tight regulation and more scrutiny can ensure the effective usage of such loan schemes. 
Better reach for vocational training: If the authorities can make arrangements to offer vocational training programmes at village level or at close proximity, it would increase rural women’s participation in such programmes. 

For urban women, effective communication and information sharing is more important. Use of modern technology (mobile phones) and social media would give more effective results in sharing information with urban women. 

(Sunimalee Madurawala is a Research Economist at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS). To share your comments with the author, please write to [email protected]. This article is based on the research findings of ‘A Desk Review to Assess Sri Lankan Girls’ and Young Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment for Leadership’ done by the IPS, with the guidance of the Women and Child Affairs Ministry and funding from Plan International Sri Lanka. For more articles, visit the blog 
http://www.ips.lk/talkingeconomics/)