The Women and Media Collective together with other women’s organisations have been campaigning to increase the representation of women at local, provincial and national level for over 15 years. The current electoral reform process, which is a measure to strengthen representative democracy, should provide an opportunity to increase women’s representation in the Parliament of Sri … Continue reading Discussion on the 20th Amendment to the constitution with CAFFE, Sri Lanka

RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY WOMEN’S GROUPS TO THE 20TH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION CURRENTLY UNDER DISCUSSION Women in Sri Lanka have had the right to vote from as early as 1931, but very little opportunity to become the people’s elected political representatives—in either Parliament or in Provincial or Local Government. This fact has been highlighted worldwide … Continue reading Political Representation of Women: Ensuring 25% Increase

The awards for the winning short films of the Women and Media Collectives short film competition were presented at the opening ceremony of WMC’s 30th anniversary exhibition on the 10th of February 2015. This year first place went to J.P. Kusum Jayaweera for ‘Weegawath Gahaniya’ (Speed Woman). Kusum is a nurse from the Anuradhapura teaching … Continue reading WMC Short Film Competition 2014

Women’s rights groups from all parts of Sri Lanka made it happen on the streets of Colombo to mark International Women’s Day 2015. On the 9th of March, women’s groups were demanding for an increase in political representation for women by introducing at least a 25% quota in all political bodies and to establish an … Continue reading IWD 2015: International Women’s Day March

මීළඟ පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ජන්දය මිශ්ර ක්රමයකට පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත බැවින් පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ජන්ද විමසීම් (සංශෝධන) පනතට, ස්තී්රන්ට 25%ක ආසන වෙන්කිරීමක් සිදුකරන ලෙසට සංශෝධන ගෙන එන ලෙස දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලින් ඉල්ලා සිටීම. පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණවලදී නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීමේ දී හා ප්රසාද ආසන ලබාදීමේ දී ස්තී්ර පුරුෂ සමාජභාවීය සමතුලිතාවයකින් යුතුව ආසන වෙන්කරන මෙන් දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලින් ඉල්ලා සිටීම. දේශපාලනයේ … Continue reading දේශපාලනයේ ස්ත්‍රි නියෝජනය වැඩි කිරීම සඳහා ස්ත්‍රින්ගේ ඉල්ලීම

Women and Media Collective would like to congratulate the newly appointed women ministers in Sri Lanka, Chandani Bandara, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Vijeyakala Maheshwaran, Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs, Thalatha Athukorala, Minister of Foreign Employment, Rosy Senanayake, Minister of Children’s Affairs and Anoma Gamage, Deputy Minister of Irrigation. We take this opportunity to encourage you … Continue reading While we congratulate the newly appointed women ministers we too are vigilant of the 100 days programme

Don’t think of me as a woman: an election story for the margins was screened in Trincomalee and Batticaloa on the 26 and 27 of May. The screenings picked up positive feedback from the audience. While many congratulated Aynoon Beebi, the female candidate featured in the film, other women who contested in the same elections … Continue reading Community screening of short film: Don’t think of me as a woman

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies together with Women and Media Collective is pleased to invite you to the launch of the film by Chulani Kodikara and Velayudan Jayachithra in celebration of International Women’s Day 2014 on 6th March 2014 at 4.30 p.m at ICES Auditorium, Colombo. All are welcome for the screening and discussion … Continue reading Don’t think of me as a woman: An election story from the margins.

A four day residential training programme, Stepping Stones, for trade union women on gender and leadership was held in two phases on the 19th and 20th November and on the 17th and 18th December , 2013 in Colombo. The objective if this workshop was to train the trade union members as gender and leadership trainees … Continue reading Gender and leadership workshop: Trade Union Women Claiming Political Leadership

Changing Minds | EQUAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICS Sharing experiences – 2011 Local Government Elections WMC, in partnership with five other women’s organizations, carried out a project to increase nominations for women candidates at the 2011 local government elections. A discussion was held on the 22nd of June 2012, in order to share the … Continue reading Sharing experiences – 2011 Local Government Elections