{"id":231360,"date":"2025-02-04T05:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T05:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/where-a-strongman-failed-women-are-now-fueling-a-democratic-revival\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T05:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T05:58:12","slug":"where-a-strongman-failed-women-are-now-fueling-a-democratic-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/where-a-strongman-failed-women-are-now-fueling-a-democratic-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Where a Strongman Failed, Women Are Now Fueling a Democratic Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/21\/multimedia\/00srilanka-women-01-bmtz\/00srilanka-women-01-bmtz-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Where a Strongman Failed, Women Are Now Fueling a Democratic Revival\" title=\"Where a Strongman Failed, Women Are Now Fueling a Democratic Revival\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was a brief remark during a mundane session of Parliament. But to Harini Amarasuriya, Sri Lanka\u2019s prime minister, it was the moment she realized that her country, wrecked not long ago by strongman leaders and their populist politics, had entered a potentially transformative moment for women.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A male colleague (and \u201cnot a very feminist\u201d one, as Dr. Amarasuriya described him) stood up to say that the island nation could not get more women into the formal work force unless it officially recognized the \u201ccare economy\u201d \u2014 work caring for others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To Dr. Amarasuriya, it was \u201cone of the biggest thrills\u201d to hear language in government that had long been confined to activists or to largely forgotten gender departments. \u201cI was like, \u2018OK, all those years of fighting with you have paid off,\u2019\u201d she said with a laugh during an interview in December at her office in Colombo, the capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two years after Sri Lankans <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/12\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-rajapaksa.html\" title=\"\">rose up and cast out a political dynasty<\/a> whose profligacy had brought economic ruin, the country is in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime reinvention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Anger has steadied into a quieter resolve for wholesale change. Through a pair of national elections last year, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/24\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-election.html\" title=\"\">for president<\/a> and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/15\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-election.html\" title=\"\">for Parliament<\/a>, the old elite that had governed for decades was decimated. A leftist movement has risen in its place, promising a more equal society.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the country\u2019s democracy rebounds, opportunities are opening for women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Women were a driving force behind the protest movement that forced Sri Lanka\u2019s president to flee in July 2022. When the country all but ran out of cash and fuel, the burden fell disproportionately on women, who shoulder the domestic load. Their rage sent them into the streets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, women are at the center of efforts to give the country lasting protections against the whims of strongmen. Women are also doing the slow and steady work of shaping a political culture that allows them equal space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Women, who make up 56 percent of registered voters, were crucial to the electoral victories late last year by National People\u2019s Power, a small leftist outfit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the party\u2019s leader, has spent his life in leftist politics. He appointed Dr. Amarasuriya, a sociologist and activist, as prime minister, the country\u2019s second-most-powerful post. She is the first woman to hold such a high post in South Asia who was not the wife or daughter of a previous top leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In September, as she prepared to take office, Dr. Amarasuriya was nursing a cold when New York Times reporters visited her home, its walls covered in cat art. One of her four cats was giving her attitude, she said, faking a limp as she tried to feed her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She was keeping an eye on the political debates in the United States, where she spent a year as an exchange student. \u201cI guess I am one of those <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/30\/opinion\/jd-vance-childless-cat-ladies.html\" title=\"\">\u2018childless cat ladies,\u2019<\/a>\u201d she said with a smile, referring to a dismissive comment by now-Vice President JD Vance that became a rallying cry for some American women.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Amarasuriya has long preached that a more equal society cannot be achieved without making governance more friendly to women, injecting what she calls \u201cfeminist sensitivity\u201d into policymaking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new government is taking up policy debates on improving pay parity and making work environments better for women. It hopes to raise the rate of female participation in the formal work force to about 50 percent, up from 33 percent. The governing party is doubling down on its efforts to mobilize women politically to ensure that this moment is not fleeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is \u201ca change of the way you think about government, the way you think about power and authority,\u201d Dr. Amarasuriya said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some of the earliest actions have included ending the V.I.P. culture around politics. Gone are the long motorcades, large security details and lavish mansions for ministers. The president has slashed his traveling entourage. The prime minister\u2019s compound, which under its previous occupant buzzed with the activity of over 100 staff members, now has a library-like quiet, as Dr. Amarasuriya works with a staff of just a dozen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Outside the lobby leading to her office, as well as on her desk, are framed drawings that schoolchildren have been sending her. One showed Dr. Amarasuriya in a blue sari and her natural curls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPrime Minister Auntie,\u201d the writing on the drawing said. \u201cMay lord Buddha bless you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The true test will be the economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is stabilizing, bolstered by an uptick in tourism and reductions in government expenditures after decades of runaway spending. But it is not out of the woods yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Kaveesha Maduwanthi, 18, who works at a clothing factory, is among the many who hope that the country\u2019s new leaders can find a way to boost economic growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Maduwanthi earns about $100 a month. Her husband, a mason, brings home roughly the same amount if he gets steady work. She said that more than half of her salary went to baby formula for her daughter, who turned 1 in January. On top of that, she and her husband pay for the food and medicine of grandparents who babysit the girl while they work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe don\u2019t need the government providing us with food \u2014 we can somehow manage,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we need is a country where I have the space to make a little extra cash so I can invest in my daughter \u2014 maybe a pair of gold earrings for her first birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before the presidential election last year, National People\u2019s Power, the leftist party, spent about two years trying to mobilize women like Ms. Maduwanthi. Women, Dr. Amarasuriya and other party leaders argued at the time, were looking for someone to champion the issues they felt strongly about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After female voters helped lift Mr. Dissanayake to victory in the presidential vote, the party won an absolute majority in Parliament weeks later. In many districts, women won handily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Amarasuriya, running in Colombo, broke a record for votes that had been held by Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former prime minister, president and war hero and the older brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president who was ousted in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ample victories by Dr. Amarasuriya and other women shattered a myth that female politicians could not win, she said. Her party raised money centrally and distributed it evenly to female and male candidates to overcome disadvantages that women face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The number of women in Parliament doubled. Still, the country has far to go \u2014 women still make up just 10 percent of lawmakers. There are only two women among the 21 ministers in Mr. Dissanayake\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Amarasuriya and other female leaders said they were disappointed with those numbers. But the work of making the political culture gender-inclusive is not just about numbers, Dr. Amarasuriya said, but also a \u201cconstant process\u201d to influence and sensitize policymaking and day-to-day governance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party says it is focused on entrenching its mobilization of women to get more of them into leadership positions at lower levels of politics. The goal, it says, is to remove the pretext that there are not enough female leaders to be tapped for more prominent roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Across 13,000 of the 14,000 grama niladhari, the smallest units of Sri Lanka\u2019s local governance, the party has established women\u2019s committees, according to Saroja Savithri Paulraj, the women\u2019s affairs minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On a Sunday afternoon in a suburb of Colombo, a new committee was being inaugurated. The organizers had canvassed door to door, collected information and created WhatsApp groups. About 100 people trickled in and sat in plastic chairs in the courtyard of a house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Samanmalee Gunasinghe, the local member of Parliament, took to the mic. \u201cWe used to be flower pots on the political stage,\u201d Ms. Gunasinghe said. \u201cThey would take our votes and throw us into the fire afterward, abandoning us with our children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, she said, the women\u2019s committees have created a space \u201cwhere we can shout together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/04\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-politics-women.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a brief remark during a mundane session of Parliament. But to Harini Amarasuriya, Sri Lanka\u2019s prime minister, it was the moment she realized that her country, wrecked not long ago by strongman leaders and their populist politics, had entered a potentially transformative moment for women. A male colleague (and \u201cnot a very feminist\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/21\/multimedia\/00srilanka-women-01-bmtz\/00srilanka-women-01-bmtz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[180919,180918,47,111665,14637,10538,180920,137131,10322,4280,180921,3653,163419,175509],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231362,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231360\/revisions\/231362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}