ANALYSING SRI LANKAN ORGANIZATIONS FROM A

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

A CASE STUDY BASED ON APPAREL INDUSTRY IN NOTHERN

PROVINCE

Course of Study : MBA Weekend - General

Subject Code : MBA 5105

Subject :Contemporary Management Thought

Group No: 2.5

Table1
Team details

Registration Number Name Focus Area/ Contribution

2020/MBA/WE/096 MH Prageeth Introduction

2020/MBA/WE/123 P Vathsalyan Background and Problem statement

2020/MBA/WE/073 APEN Mendis Analysis of the issue

2020/MBA/WE/077 MAHP Nawarathna Analysis of the issue

2020/MBA/WE/119 EKSH Siriwardhana Analysis and Conclusion

2020/MBA/WE/105 LAR Rukshika Recommendations

ii
Acknowledgement
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to those who gave an idea to do the
study and analysing Sri Lankan organizations from a feminist perspective.

First, we would like to thank Dr. Seuwandhi Ranasinghe, Mr. Buddhika Hewawasam
and Dr. Dinuka Wijetunga for providing guidance to design and prepare this case study through
the Course Outline and briefings in Lectures.

Also, we would like to thank the management and employees of Northern Apparel for
giving consent to do the case study in their organization and providing company information
for the success of analysis and helping throughout this study.

iii
Contents
Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................... iii

Contents ..................................................................................................................................... iv

List of Annexures ....................................................................................................................... v

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Woman in Sri Lanka: An overview ............................................................................. 1

1.2. Woman Participation for Economic Activities in Sri Lanka ....................................... 1

2. Background ......................................................................................................................... 2

2.1. What is Feminism? ...................................................................................................... 2

2.2. The Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka .............................................................................. 2

2.3. Apparel Industry in Northern Province of Sri Lanka .................................................. 2

3. Methodology/ Approach ..................................................................................................... 3

4. Problem Statement .............................................................................................................. 3

5. Analysis............................................................................................................................... 4

6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 6

7. Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 7

7.1. Conduct awareness Programmes in the Northern Province ........................................ 7

7.2. Increased the childcare and health facilities. ............................................................... 7

7.3. Giving Training and Development Opportunities. ...................................................... 7

7.4. Give equal job role opportunities to women employees. ............................................ 8

7.5. Increase the Tamil speaking female representation in Human Resource (HR) Dept .. 8

References .................................................................................................................................. 9

Annexures................................................................................................................................. 11

iv
List of Annexures
Annexure 1 The profile of the respondents ............................................................................. 11
Annexure 2 The statement of the respondents………………………………………………...12

v
1. Introduction
1.1. Woman in Sri Lanka: An overview
The women in Sri Lanka has been influenced by patriarchal values embedded in
traditional, colonial, and post-independence societies, by liberal traditional laws and gender
inequality reflected in the legal system, and by norms introduced during the British colonial
administration. Sri Lankan politicians implemented a social policy package of free health and
education services, as well as subsidized food, during the transition years after colonial control,
which substantially enhanced women's quality of life (ADB, May 1999).
Women in Sri Lanka have a better position than women in other South Asian countries,
but they are still far from achieving gender equality or being fully empowered in accordance
with international norms. Sri Lanka placed 75th in the gender inequality index (GII) with a GII
of 0.383, according to the Human Development Report (UNDP) 2014. In Sri Lanka, women
have the same rights as males, including inheritance rights, and the 1978 Constitution provides
fundamental rights and nondiscrimination based on gender. There are also provisions in place
to ensure that women's rights to equality are protected. Working outside the home, engaging in
financial transactions, and acquiring credit are all legal options for women (ILO 2016).

1.2. Woman Participation for Economic Activities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's female labor force participation (LFP) situation has effect in long-term
positive influence on broader economic results and, more significantly, on poverty reduction
and social protection for women. According to 2019 estimates, the rate of labour force
participation among women in Sri Lanka is 34.5 (LFS Annual Report 2019). In the early part
of the last decade, agriculture was the most common source of work for women. However,
women's employment in services had increased to about 40%, whereas in 2009, close to 40%
of women were employed in agriculture (ILO 2016).
Women are primarily employed in education and health care services in the services
sector, whereas men are primarily employed in the traditional, non-tradable sectors of wholesale
and retail trade, public administration and defense, and transportation. Men dominate all
industries except education, health, and manufacturing (ILO 2016). When it comes to woman
participation for economic activities, there are three-woman dominant industries/sectors, such
as Apparel, Tea Plantation and foreign employment.

1
2. Background
2.1. What is Feminism?
Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to gender, gender expression, gender identity,
sex, and sexuality as understood via social ideas and political engagement. Feminism has
progressed over time from a critical study of gender inequalities to a more nuanced focus on
the social and performative constructions of gender and sexuality.

2.2. The Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka

Apparel industry in Sri Lanka started during 1970s and 1980s with the shift of the global
assembly line from the North to the South— the ‘first global shift,’ which took place in the
1970s and 1980s as part of neoliberalisation of the global political economy (Harvey, 2005;
Dicken, 2007) and the “open economic policy” introduced by the new government elected at
that period. Sri Lanka's apparel sector plays a significant role in the country's economy. Since
1986, it has grown to become Sri Lanka's top export sector. Since 1992, it has also been the
country's greatest net foreign exchange earner. There are around 300-350 manufacturers of
apparel and the total value of exports in the apparel sector was US $ 5307Mn in the year 2019
(EDB, Sri Lanka 2020)

2.3. Apparel Industry in Northern Province of Sri Lanka

Even though the garment industries have long history in Sri Lanka, large scale apparel
industry could start in the Northern Province nearly after 4 decades in 2010 just after the local
war. Few apparel giants in Sri Lanka took the challenge to expand their geography to the
Northern Province to support the people by providing employing opportunities especially the
female population. Northern apparel is one of such factory opened in north to give nearly 1000
direct employment opportunities. Northern apparel is part of the XYZ group which is one of
the biggest apparel exporter of Sri Lanka provides more than 20,000 direct employees and
consists of nearly 10+ factories around the country.
Since most of the women in the north from the Tamil/ Hindu cultural background, we
could see stereotype preference for government jobs, being a good house wife or mother and
work in their own farms or peasant workers. Strong cast structure followed by people is another
major factor controlling women’s decision on the choice of jobs. The main reason for these
women to prefer government job is to work only during day times to ensure better work – life
balance to look after their family or household chores parallelly. Working in an apparel industry
setup with the shift patterns around the clock is unimaginable when considering an average

2
woman in that context. In addition to these there are several social media propagandas to give
bad image about the garment factory sewing machine operators such as juki lamai, juki kello
(juki girls) became another barrier or critic for women to join these new garment factories in
that area. Because parents are really worry about the future of their daughters when going for
marriage proposals.
However the management of the Northern apparel put lots of effort to show the reality by
providing trainings, familiarization programs on the work environment, facilities and the
mandated compliance requirement by brands/buyers to the initial batch of selected employees
in their group of factories located in other parts of the country. Some parents were allowed to
visit such factories to see how their daughters are working and treated. This enabled the change
in mentality of the people to allow their daughters to work in garment factories without any
fear.

3. Methodology/ Approach
In order to carry out this study, we used snowball sampling method to gather the data
from respondents. Due to the current travel restrictions, we couldn’t have an onsite visit to these
factories to review the situation directly. We interviewed few key managers from the
management and few shop floor employees through telephone and MS Teams Video
conference. The profile of the respondents (Annexure 1) and the statements of respondents
(Annexure 2) are attached to Annexures. Majority of the dialogues done in Tamil which were
translated into English. The collected data and information were analysed against the feminist
theories and perspectives. Based on the analysis, issues were identified, a conclusion was drawn
and recommendations were given to the highlighted issues.

4. Problem Statement
Through the interviews conducted with the shop floor employees four issues were
identified: glass ceiling, lack of female leadership, lack of work-life balance and sociocultural
pressure especially for unmarried females. However there is no serious concerns such as
bullying or harassments highlighted during the interviews. Based on the discussion had with
management, we understood the issues highlighted by the shop floor people are present in the
organization and they’re looking for solutions to overcome. Because the gap between female
operators and the management affect the engagement levels and finally the performance of the
organization.

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5. Analysis
In 'feminised' industries, such as the global apparel industry, where 80 percent of the
workforce is (rural, young) women, as is the case in Sri Lanka's apparel industry. Women
continue to be a "subordinated category," according to Jayawardena (2014): In fact, men hold
nearly all of the apparel industry's "top-rung" skilled occupations (on the shop floor), such as
factory managers, operations managers, and production executives. Machine
operators/seamstresses, quality checkers, and helpers, on the other hand, are still considered to
be ‘feminine jobs' (Jayawardena, 2010; Hancock et al., 2015).
MO1 claimed, “I’m working here for 3 years as a machine operator. I was recognized few
times as the most efficient operator of the production line. I prefer to learn work-study and
willing to become a work-study officer. But my superiors recommend only male employees to
learn work-study……” The respondent clearly shows her interest in learning and development
within the organization and clearly states that she is not given the opportunity just because she
is a woman. This statement emphasizes how a glass ceiling is created in these organizations
putting a barrier for woman rising the corporate ladder despite their willingness to learn and
grow.
MO2 claims “Due to some family issues, I’m not in a position to concentrate on my work
and make mistakes. Even though my module leader (female) have an understanding about my
situation, shift executive (male) blames me in front of other operators. This makes me very
uncomfortable. I need someone to share my problem and get advice/ guidance. But all of them
are males and I’m reluctant to talk them openly…...” In this context, we see that not only the
glass ceiling effect is imbued with patriarchal social relations in this industry, but also women’s
domestic chores and family commitments are crucial in keeping the glass ceiling in place in
organisations. But on the other hand, the reason for woman’s family issues in a patriarchal
society like Sri Lanka, is that the community believes that taking care of the family and kids is
a sole responsibility of women while men are responsible only to bring food to the family which
makes a clear barrier for woman to work and rise in the corporate ladder.
ME1 claimed, “I’m one of the 3 female mechanics where rest of the 93 mechanics are
males. We prefer some more female mechanics like us to work more effectively. However our
supervisor is not willing to recruit more female mechanics stating various reasons. As far as I
know there is no difference in the way we’re carrying out the repairs and maintenance tasks
compared to male” This statement also conveys how the woman is not given the equal
opportunity when she performs as good as a man is in the same position. The patriarchal society

4
and its influence on Sri Lankan organizations ruins the human rights of woman and marginalize
them considering the woman should continue being subordinate which creates a clear glass-
ceiling effect.
ML1 claims, “I lost my father during the war and had to take the family and financial
responsibility of my mother and sisters. My module leader job here supports me to take care
my family up to certain extent. I prefer to do overtime and earn money to get reasonable reserve
for my dowry. Because we must give significant amount as dowry to get married. But
production executive give overtime opportunity only for male module leaders. This is really
disappointing me. I’m scared to take this up to senior level, because I don’t know whether I get
a positive response or further criticism” Due to the “men are only responsible to bring food to
the family concept” in the society, woman is underestimated. Therefore the opportunities which
both men and woman should receive equally, is received only by men in the corporate sector
due to these societal barriers.
“We’re having problems in retaining female employees more than 5 years. Most of them
will resign from the job after marriage. … This is the reason we’re reluctant to provide them
development programs or training for career progression. We have limitations in changing their
shifts and work patterns and working hours especially night shift works compared to male
employees. Male employees doesn’t have much family related obligations and stay with us for
long period if they get paid well…” claimed PRM. The respondent PRM explains the reasons
from the management perspective. The management is reluctant to give the equal opportunity
to women due to the obligations they have to their own families and due to the cultural barriers
that woman face in the patriarchal society. The woman is bound to get married and to give a
dowry to the man. Working in an organization for these woman is not for the development of
their own carrier but to collect money to give the man to make them get married to her. The
human rights of a woman is challenged and violated and she is considered as a much
marginalized person in this patriarchal society and the organizations are also a victim of these
same societal barriers.
In today's organizations, the glass ceiling and its consequences are still an ethical and
political concern (Gatrell & Cooper, 2007; Powell & Butterfield, 2015): It not only inhibits
women from reaching the top of the corporate ladder, but it also causes (managerial) women to
retire early because they have practically never been able to break through the glass ceiling.
Respondent ENM claims, “Even though the three female mechanics are working efficiently and
effectively, we have limitations in assigning them in harder tasks such as major repairs or utility
related or building related repairs. However I could see better motivation levels among the male

5
mechanics because some are really fear that their job roles will be taken over by females. ….”
The glass ceiling appears in this context as an invisible barrier laced with patriarchy,
sociocultural or institutional, and gendered norms in organizations. Labor positions are
determined in organizations based on gender, resulting direct discrimination and stereotyping
of women.

6. Conclusion
According to statistics, women in Sri Lanka have a better position than the other South
Asian countries. But they are not enjoying equality as expected and this was proven in our
analysis of Northern Apparel from a feminist perspective.
Although Northern Apparel is a female dominant Organization, women face lot of issues
due to gender based discrimination, especially when climbing up in the career ladder. But most
of the times they are not able to speak up for themselves as they are vulnerable and not
empowered due to social and cultural barriers. Northern Apparel Company prefers men for
executive and managerial job positions compared to women. Women working in production
lines lost their identity due to social norms rooted in the area and do not get opportunities to
take part in the decision making process of the organization. On the other hand, they are
unarmed with the required educational qualifications and they lack opportunities for higher
studies which make them stagnated in their career progress. Organization is increasing the
number of women employees in the traditional male dominant job roles such as mechanics,
electricians etc. which can be seen as a positive movement towards feminism, however, those
initiatives are still at infant stage and proceeding very slowly. Majority of female workers
naively accept the gender roles and without questioning they perform the assigned tasks
willingly at the workplace as well as in homes and their understanding of gender issues is
limited, and as a result, there are no active engagements in challenging the status quo which
causes gender discrimination.
Hence, it can be concluded that, Sri Lankan women, especially in rural areas are far away
from achieving equality, even in female dominant industries mainly due to social norms and
cultural barriers and they need to be empowered to go beyond boundaries and to be impactful
partners of the economic development of the country.

6
7. Recommendations
7.1. Conduct awareness Programmes in the Northern Province
There is a cultural misconception about working women in apparel companies. As per the
culture and the societal thinking, it gives a bad image to marry a girl who works in an apparel
company, as they work long hours, night shifts, and over time. Therefore, it is recommended to
conduct awareness programs in the Northern Province to overcome the misconception among
the people. Consequently, it will be possible to increase the image or the dignity of the women
who are working in apparel companies. As well as, the company also would be able to attract
new and young talent to the company.

7.2. Increased the childcare and health facilities.

As discussed in the above analysis, one of the common issue is tendency of resigning of
the female employees after marriage. Main reason for this issue as identified in the analysis is,
the difficulty in managing work life balance after marriage. For an instance, there is no place
to keep the children when the mother is at work. Therefore, it is recommended to start day care
units within the company premises to keep the small kids during the work hours in order to
reduce the married female employee turnover rate. The company is also benefitted through the
reduction in the costs involved in recruiting and training.

7.3. Giving Training and Development Opportunities.

As discussed in the analysis, the Glass ceiling is a common effect, which can be seen in
the apparel industry, which creates a huge barrier in women employees’ ability to climb up the
career ladder. Though the majority of the employees represents the female as a gender, there is
a male dominant culture exists in the company. Hence, the promotion opportunities after some
level, extra working hour opportunities that can earn some extra money and cross-functional
training have not been given to female employees. Therefore, it is recommended to give equal
training and development opportunities to female employees, such as technical trainings,
leadership Programmes, outbound trainings, and residential trainings etc. This would help to
build the talent pipeline of designers, supervisors and Human Resource (HR) professionals and
managers.

7
7.4. Give equal job role opportunities to women employees.
There are some female employees who would like to work overtime in order to earn some
more money. However, that opportunity is not given at the current scenario, as all the male
supervisors prefer to have male employees at work. Therefore, we recommend creating policies
and rosters of working overtime in alignment with Labor Law guidelines and giving more
opportunities to female employees without being gender bias.

7.5. Increase the Tamil speaking female representation in Human Resource (HR) Dept
Since the HR department doesn’t have enough resource persons especially females, shop
floor employees don’t have opportunities and platform to open up and discuss their
requirements and grievances. Therefore, it is recommended to increase the Tamil speaking
women representation in the HR department and create an open door culture where any
employee at any time can approach the officers and raise their concerns to seek support. At the
same time, it is recommended to places Female counselor within the premises, so that any
employee can reach them out get advisory and consultancy services.

8
References
Gatrell, C. J., & Cooper, C. L. (2007). (No) cracks in the glass ceiling: women managers,

stress and the barriers to success. In D. Biliomoria & S. K. Piderit (Eds.), Handbook

on Women in Business and Management, (pp. 57-77). Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing

Ltd.

Goger, A. (2013). From Disposable to Empowered: Rearticulating Labor in Sri Lankan

Apparel Factories. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 45(11), 2628–

2645. https://doi.org/10.1068/a45694

Hancock, P., Carastathis, G., Georgiou, J., & Oliveira, M. (2015). Female workers in textile

and garment sectors in Sri Lankan Export Processing Zones (EPZs): gender

dimensions and working conditions. Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences, 38(1), 63-

77.

Jayawardena, D. (2010). Narratives, lamai and female labour: (Re)narrating the untold story

of HRM in Sri Lanka’s apparel industry. (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of

Leicester: Leicester.

Jayawardena, D. (2014). HRM as a “web of texts”: (Re)articulating the identity of HRM in

Sri Lanka’s localized global apparel industry. Organization Management Journal,

11(4), 289-298.

Jayawardena, D. (2018). Patriarchy and (Un)Doing Factory of Women’s Collective Identity in

Sri Lanka’s Localised Global Apparel Industry. Handbook of Research on Women’s

Issues and Rights in the Developing World, 19–36. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-

5225-3018-3.ch002

Lanka., Sri. Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey Annual Report, 2019. Colombo, Department Of

Census And Statistics, Ministry Of National Policies & Economic Affairs, 2020.

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Powell, G. N., & Butterfield, D. A. (2015). The glass ceiling: what have we learned 20 years

on? Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(4), 306-326.

Ruwanpura, K. N. (2011). Women workers in the apparel sector. Progress in Development

Studies, 11(3), 197–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/146499341001100302

Shyamali Ranaraja, Shafinaz Hassendeen, Ramani Gunatilaka, & International Labour

Organization (Colombo, Sri Lanka. (2016). Factors affecting women’s labour force

participation in Sri Lanka. International Labour Organization, Ilo Country Office For

Sri Lanka And The Maldives.

Shyamali Ranaraja, et al. Factors Affecting Women’s Labour Force Participation in Sri Lanka.

Colombo, International Labour Organization, Ilo Country Office For Sri Lanka And

The Maldives, 2016.

Swarna Jayaweera, and Asian Development Bank. Programs Department (West. Women in Sri

Lanka. Manila?, Asian Development Bank, Programs Dept. West, 1999.

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Annexures
Annexure 1ondents

The profile of the respondents

Respondent Gender Age Division Job Title Years of Designated

Range Experience Responsibilities

MO1 Female 23 Sewing Machine 3 Sewing

Operator

MO2 Female 26 Sampling Multi-skilled 5 Sewing and packing

Operator

ME1 Female 25 Maintenance Mechanic 4 Machine maintenance

and repairs

ML1 Female 27 Production Module 8 Managing the

Leader Modules/ Inspection

PRM Male 35 Production Production 7 Managing production

Manager Department

ENM Male 38 Maintenance Engineering 8 Maintenance of the

Manager entire facility.

HRM Male 42 Human Human 8 Employee & Industrial

Resource Resource Relations
Manager

11
Annexure 2

The statement of the respondents

Respondent Statement
MO1 “I’m working here for 3 years as a machine operator here. I recognized few
times for efficient operator of the production line. I prefer to learn work-study
and willing to become a work-study officer. But my superiors recommends
only male employees to learn work-study. We need a lady executive or
manager in the production department to discuss our grievances and problems
openly. We have only one HR executive and external lady to do the
counselling which is not adequate to manage more than 1000 people. We have
to wait months to get an opportunity for one to one discussion. We require
few more female staff members to discuss with us and do counselling”
MO2 “Due to some family issues, I’m not in a position to concentrate on my work
and making mistakes. Even though my module leader(female) have
understanding about my situation, shift executive(male) blames me in front of
other operators. This makes me very uncomfortable. I need someone to share
my problem and get advice/ guidance. But all of them are males and I’m
reluctant to talk them openly. We have a very good and understanding HR
manager. But we have language barrier to talk to him in either English or
Sinhala. We don’t know whether the translators are giving the right message
to HR Manager ”.
ME1 “I’m one of the 3 female mechanics where rest of the 93 mechanics are
males. We prefer some more female mechanics like us to work more
effectively. However our supervisor not willing to add more female
mechanics stating various reasons. As far as I know there is no difference in
the way we’re carrying our the repairs and maintenance tasks compare with
males”
ML1 “I lost my father during the war and had to take the family and financial
responsibility of my mother and sisters. My Module leader job here supports
me to take care my family upto certain extent. I prefer to do overtime and earn

12
 money to get reasonable reserve for my dowry. Because we must give
significant amount as dowry to get marry. But production executive give
overtime opportunity only for male module leaders. This is really
disappointing me. I’m scared to take this upto senior level, because I don’t
know whether I get positive response or further criticism”
PRM “We’re having problem in retaining female employees more than 5 years.
Most of them will resign from the job after marriage. We need to start
everything from scratch with a new comer this is really time consuming and
waste of resources. This is the reason we’re reluctant to provide them
development programs or training for career progression. We have limitations
in changing their shifts and work patterns and working hours especially night
shift works compare with male employees. Male employees doesn’t have
much family related obligations and stay with us long period if they get paid
well. This is the reason we prefer male supervisors and line leaders”
ENM “Even though the three female mechanics are working efficiently and
effectively, we have limitations in assigning them in harder tasks such as
major repairs or utility related or building related repairs. However I could see
better motivation levels among the male mechanics because some are really
fear that their job roles will be filled by females. I personally doesn’t have any
objection in adding more females to maintenance department. But I don’t want
to make any agitation within the male dominant environment in my
department”.
HRM “We feel better engagement of employees with the management. We are
conducting couple of development programs targeting the individuals who
have urge to learn and develop. Company is sponsoring the diploma programs
on few female employees. We planned upgrade our health center to give more
facility to the pregnant ladies. But due to Covid19 pandemic this got delay
due to budget constraints. I don’t have much resources within my department
to have better dialogue and relationship with all the employees. However I
requested the senior management to give at least two female executives who
can speak in native language to carry out the employees relations matters”.

13