Gender Transformation, Power and Resistance Among Women in Sri Lanka

The study concludes with the challenges this “lack of legitimacy” poses from the perspective of countering a process whereby history otherwise may well repeat itself.

In the context of Sri Lanka this study concentrates on the taken for granted “unsaid” nature of relations between the sexes and the process by which they change imperceptibly over time. Gender relations were substantially transformed during British colonial rule, although these changes often went unrecognized by both the colonizer and the colonized. During this process of gender transformation the position of women deteriorated, not so much due to a direct move to curb their position, but more as an indirect result of an intensified struggle over resources between the more powerful (males), colonizer as well as colonized. This situation finds parallels in the status of women today. The position of women – as rural, unorganized workers – still remains unappreciated within (inter)national development planning, which obstructs their entry into a meaningful dialogue with the more powerful, although their strategies of resistance are manifold.