In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Sri Lanka’s first woman prime minister – and the first female prime minister in the world – after entering politics and taking over leadership of her husband’s party after his assassination. Once in high office, Bandaranaike proved highly adept in navigating the complex and male-dominated political landscape – something equally true of other women leaders, including her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who became the president of Sri Lanka in later years. However, their political journeys were often enabled by male family members who were career politicians. These women leaders’ mode of entry into politics, based on family legacies, did not lend itself to creating more space for women in politics at the grassroots level.

Even when they have benefitted from articulate and competent women politicians in their ranks, Sri Lanka’s political parties have typically not allowed them key decision-making or leadership roles. It is for this reason that the elevation of Harini Amarasuriya to the office of prime minister in September, after the victory of Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the country’s recent presidential election, is significant. The National People’s Power (NPP) – a coalition of civil society groups and trade unions organised around Dissanayake’s party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – nominated Amarasuriya to a seat in parliament in 2020, when she was a senior academic. This was already notable, as it was evidence of a conscious move by the NPP towards greater inclusion and representation of women.