Achieving Women’s Empowerment as a Central Condition towards the Vision of Sustainability: The Case of Migrant Domestic Maids in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Does transnational labour migration of women confer gender equality and empowerment on a long term and sustainable basis? This is the question that is being addressed in the paper. After a survey of a group of housemaids employed in the Middle East and South Asia, the author opines that although women migrants who achieve the status of being the main wage earner, and contribute significantly to the household income, the position of the male being the rightful head of the household remains unchanged. This is in spite of the women migrants gaining the essential prerequisites for intra household gender equality and empowerment, having experienced a sense of financial autonomy and political independence in contrast to the dependent housewife during the pre migration stage. The traditional gender ideologies are too deeply ingrained in both the women and their spouses. The author concludes that transnational low skilled labour migration is thus not the strategy to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, which is a vital factor for the sustainable development of Sri Lanka. The study thus emphasizes the importance of gender mainstreaming as a key to a sustainable society in Sri Lanka.