Womens Manifest-2010

In the last decades important changes have occurred in the lives of Sri Lankan women, and progress was made in reforming laws, improving women's economic and social status, and increasing gender awareness among many sectors of the population. Women are nearly 90% literate and more visible than ever before in the public domain. Sri Lanka had the world's first woman Prime Minister, as well as a woman President, and more recently the country had its first woman Vice-Chancellor, Supreme Court Judge, Secretary General of Parliament, Secretary to a Ministry, Governor of the Southern Province, General Manager of the Bank of Ceylon and
Registrar, Colombo University.
Women also play an important part in the state bureaucracies, in diplomacy, the private sector, medical, legal and teaching professions, the arts, and in many other areas. The proportion of female workers in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs has also increased. In addition to bearing the burden of poverty, women, still face many types of economic exploitation, political exclusion,
legal discrimination and social oppression. Moreover, violence against women, patriarchal practices and harmful traditional attitudes towards women still prevail.