It was a short remark during a daily session of Parliament. But to Harini Amarini, Prime Minister Sri Lanka, it was the moment when she realized that her country, destroyed not so long ago by the leaders of strong and their populist policy, entered the potentially transformative moment for women.
A male colleague (and “not very feminist”, as described by Dr. Amarsuriya), stood up to say that the island state could not introduce more women into formal labor, unless she officially acknowledged the “care economy” – a job of caring for others.
Dr. Amarasuria was “one of the greatest excitement” to hear the language in the Government, which has long been limited to activists or to the mostly forgotten native departments. “I was like,” OK, all those years of struggle with you have paid off, “she said with a laugh during an interview in December at her office in Colomb, the capital.
Two years after Sri Lankans stood up and threw out the political dynasty whose profile brought economic downfall, the country is in the midst of a re -again once in a lifetime.
Anger stood on a more peaceful decision for a wholesale change. Through a couple of national elections last year, for the president and for parliamentThe old elite that has been governing for decades has been decimated. The left -wing movement increased in its place, promising a more equal society.
As democracy in the country refuses, options open for women.
Women were the driving force of protests forced by President Sri Lanka to escape in July 2022. When the Earth ran out of cash and fuel, the burden fell disproportionate to women, who had brought home burden. Their anger sent them to the streets.
Now women are at the center of effort to give the state permanent protection against whimper. Women also do slow and constant work of designing a political culture that allows them to be equal space.
Women, who make up 56 percent of registered voters, were key to election victories late last year by national power, a small left -wing suit.
President of Anura Kumar Disanayak, a party leader, spent her life in left -wing politics. He appointed Dr. Amarsuriya, a sociologist and activist, as a prime minister, another powerful job in the country. She is the first woman to hold such a high lineup in South Asia who was not a wife or daughter of the previous best leader.
In September, while she was preparing to take over, Dr. Amarsuriya ate cold when journalists New York Times visited her home, and the walls were covered with cat arts. One of her four cats gave her attitude, she said, lying breaking as she tried to feed her.
She has followed political discussions in the United States, where she spent a year as a exchange student. “I guess I’m one of those like that ‘Cats without children’,“She said with a smile, referring to the rejection of comments by President JD Vance, who became a gathering cry for some American women.
Dr. Amarasuriya has long been preached that equally equal society cannot be achieved without managing management to be more friendly towards women, injecting what she calls “feminist sensitivity” into the creation of politics.
The new government has discussions about the policy on the improvement of the payments of pay and improving the work environment for women. He hopes to increase the participation of women in a formal labor force to about 50 percent, compared to 33 percent. The control party doubles their efforts to politically mobilize women to ensure that this moment is not going through.
It is “a change in the way you think about the government, the way you think about power and authority,” said Dr. Amarsuriya.
Some of the earliest actions included the end of VIP culture around politics. Long mothe maps, big safety details and lavish ministers castles have disappeared. The president broke through his journey that travels. The Prime Minister’s date, which under his previous passenger, buzzed over 100 members of the staff, now has a library-like silence, because Dr. Amarsuriya works with a staff of only a dozen.
Outside the lobby leading to her office, as well as on her desk, there were framed drawings that the schoolchildren sent her. One showed Dr. Amarsuriya in Blue Sarah and her natural curls.
“Aunt Prime Minister,” the drawing is written. “May Mr. Buddha bless you.”
The real test will be an economy.
It stabilizes, strengthens the rise of tourism and a decrease in state expenditures after a decade of waste consumption. But it’s not from the forest yet.
Kateesha Maduwanthi, 18, who works at a clothing factory, are hoping that new country leaders can find a way to increase economic growth.
Mrs. Maduwanthi earns about $ 100 a month. Her husband, a bricklayer, brings home about the same amount if she gets a stable job. She said that more than half of the salary went to the baby formula for her daughter, who turned 1 in January in January. On top of that, she and her husband pay food and medicine grandparents who keep the girl while working.
“We don’t need a government that gives us food – we can manage somehow,” she said. “What we need is a country where I have space to make some extra money so I can invest in my daughter – maybe a couple of gold earrings for my first birthday.”
Prior to the presidential election last year, the National People’s Power, the left -wing party, spent about two years trying to mobilize women like Mrs. Maduwanthi. Women, Dr. Amarsuriya and other party leaders claimed at the time, were looking for someone who would advocate for problems in which he felt strong.
After the women’s voters helped raise Mr. Disanayake to win the presidential vote, the party won the parliament in Parliament. In many districts, women beat.
Dr. Amarasuriya, who ran in Colomba, knocked down the record for the voices held by Mahinda Rajaksa, former Prime Minister, President and War Hero and older brother Gotabaya Rajaksa, president who was overthrown in 2022.
A lot of victories by Dr. Amarsuriya and other women have broken the myth that women’s politicians could not win, she said. Her party raised the money centrally and evenly distributed it to candidates for women and men to overcome the shortcomings that women face.
The number of women in Parliament doubled. Still, the country must far – women still make up only 10 percent of the legislators. There are only two women in Mr. Disanayake’s cabinet.
Dr. Amarasuriya and other women’s leaders said they were disappointed with these numbers. But working on the creation of a political culture that includes gender is not only about numbers, said Dr. Amarsuriya, but also a “permanent process” for the impact and sensitization of policies and daily management.
The party says that it is focused on fixing their mobilization of women to place them more at leading positions at lower levels of politics. The goal, he says, is to eliminate the pronunciation that there are not enough female leaders that could be eavesdropped on prominent roles.
Over 13,000 of 14,000 grams of Niladhari, the smallest units of the local administration of Sri Lanka, the party founded the women’s committees, according to Sačithri Paulraj, Minister of Women’s Affairs.
On Sunday afternoon in the suburbs of Colomba, a new committee was opened. The organizers had a canvas from door to door, gathered information and created WhatsApp groups. About 100 people pulled up and sat in plastic chairs in the courtyard of the house.
Samanmalee Gunasinghe, a local member of Parliament, approached the microphone. “We used to be floral pots on the political stage,” Mrs. Gunasinghe said. “They would give us voices and threw us into the fire afterwards, leaving us with their children.”
Now, she said, the female committees created a space “where we can yell together.”
