{"id":247141,"date":"2026-05-01T14:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=247141"},"modified":"2026-05-13T20:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:04:32","slug":"may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Janakie Seneviratne<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Janakie Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Observed globally as International Workers\u2019 Day and rooted in the historic struggles symbolized by the Haymarket Affair, May Day is usually seen as a celebration of workers\u2019 rights and labour solidarity. However, the idea of \u201cthe worker\u201d has never been completely neutral or universal. In practice, it has often been based on a male, industrial, and formally employed worker.\u00a0 This has meant that one type of male work was treated as the standard, while many other forms of work\u2014such as informal, precarious, migrant, and unpaid labour\u2014have been made less visible in mainstream labour discussions.<\/p>\n

Yet, when viewed through a feminist lens, particularly in the Sri Lankan context, it reveals a far more complex landscape\u2014shaped not only by gendered labour hierarchies, unpaid care work, and the persistent invisibility of women\u2019s contributions, but also by the deepening pressures of\u00a0neoliberal economic restructuring and austerity.\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka\u2019s plantation sector, generations of\u00a0Tamil women tea pluckers<\/b>\u00a0continue to sustain a vital export industry under conditions of low wages, limited mobility, poor housing and entrenched structural inequality. In the\u00a0Free Trade Zones<\/b>, young women workers in the garment industry very often form the backbone of export-led growth, yet remain constrained by long working hours, production pressures, living standards and limited bargaining power. Alongside them are Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0foreign domestic migrant women workers<\/b>\u2014who embody one of the clearest examples of globalised gendered labour: they are wage earners, primary caregivers from afar, and financial sustainers of entire households, often simultaneously.<\/p>\n

However, a fuller understanding of women\u2019s labour in Sri Lanka must also include the vast\u00a0informal sector,\u00a0<\/b>where women work as street vendors, agricultural labourers, domestic helpers, small-scale producers and many others.\u00a0 These women are often paid daily wages without contracts, without job security, and without access to social protection mechanisms such as pensions, maternity benefits, or health insurance. Their economic survival depends on precarious and fluctuating income, leaving them especially vulnerable to inflation, debt cycles, and economic shocks.<\/p>\n

In the context of neoliberal austerity\u2014marked by public spending cuts, subsidy reductions, and shrinking welfare provision<\/b>\u2014this vulnerability is further intensified, as households increasingly absorb costs that were once partially socialized by the state. Despite their centrality to household survival and local economies, their labour remains systematically undercounted and politically under-recognized.<\/p>\n

Feminist political economy highlights that women\u2019s labour cannot be understood solely through\u00a0paid employment<\/b>. It is structured through what can be described as three interconnected roles:<\/p>\n

Reproductive labour:<\/b>\u00a0unpaid care work within households, including childcare, eldercare, cooking, and domestic maintenance; Productive labour<\/b>: paid work in factories, plantations, services, and informal markets; Community labour:<\/b>\u00a0unpaid or underpaid work that sustains social networks, local economies, and community wellbeing, often performed through collective support systems, informal caregiving, and social reproduction at the neighborhood level.<\/p>\n

These overlapping responsibilities form what is often called the\u00a0\u201ctriple burden,<\/b>\u201d disproportionately carried by women across class and sector in Sri Lanka. Under conditions of neoliberal austerity, this burden expands further, as cuts to public services such as healthcare, education, and social protection effectively shift additional unpaid care responsibilities onto women and households.<\/p>\n

Karl Marx\u2019s insight that labour is central to the production of value remains relevant, particularly his observation that \u201clabour is, in the first place, a process in which both man and nature participate.\u201d Yet Marxist analysis, while foundational, did not fully account for the gendered architecture of labour reproduction. However Lenin recognized the social importance of unpaid domestic labour, but he did not develop a full theory of \u201cunpaid care work\u201d in the way contemporary feminist economics does.<\/p>\n

In his writings\u2014especially after the Russian Revolution\u2014Vladimir Lenin did argue that women\u2019s domestic burden was a key barrier to equality and that socialism should socialize household labour (through public kitchens, childcare, laundries, etc.). He saw these tasks as part of what kept women tied to the home and therefore unequal in society.<\/p>\n

Feminist theorists have since extended this critique to show that unpaid and underpaid reproductive labour is not external to capitalism but fundamental to its functioning\u2014becoming even more visible under\u00a0neoliberal regimes as in Sri Lanka<\/b>\u00a0that rely on the privatization of care and the compression of social welfare.<\/p>\n

Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw, helps us understand how different forms of inequality overlap. It shows that gender-based labour exploitation is shaped not only by gender, but also by class, ethnicity, migration status, and whether people live in rural or urban areas. In Sri Lanka, this means plantation workers, Free Trade Zone workers, migrant domestic workers, and informal sector workers all face different kinds of hardship. But they are also connected by common conditions such as low income, economic insecurity, strict economic policies, and social invisibility.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, a feminist reading of May Day demands more than symbolic recognition. It calls for structural transformation: formal recognition of informal labour, legal protection for daily-wage workers, redistribution of unpaid care work, and labour policies that reflect the full spectrum of women\u2019s contributions to the economy and society. In this sense, May Day is not only a commemoration of past struggles, but a continuing demand to confront how neoliberal austerity deepens gendered inequalities while relying on women\u2019s labour\u2014visible and invisible alike\u2014to sustain both households and the nation itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1725,"featured_media":210072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,46,8,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nMay Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-01T08:53:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T15:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1159\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"799\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janakie Seneviratne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janakie Seneviratne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/\",\"name\":\"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-01T08:53:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-13T15:04:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cb3d3e557b22ea85ab0c4cf16dc22297\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg\",\"width\":1159,\"height\":799},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cb3d3e557b22ea85ab0c4cf16dc22297\",\"name\":\"Janakie Seneviratne\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/185b3b86db015f70d3bdbf0d6acda95fbc87ffa233b5066305174d77b3709282?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/185b3b86db015f70d3bdbf0d6acda95fbc87ffa233b5066305174d77b3709282?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Janakie Seneviratne\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/jansen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2026-05-01T08:53:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-13T15:04:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1159,"height":799,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Janakie Seneviratne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janakie Seneviratne","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/","name":"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-01T08:53:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-13T15:04:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cb3d3e557b22ea85ab0c4cf16dc22297"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg","width":1159,"height":799},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/may-day-through-a-feminist-lens-sri-lankas-invisible-women-workers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"May Day Through A Feminist Lens: Sri Lanka\u2019s Invisible Women Workers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cb3d3e557b22ea85ab0c4cf16dc22297","name":"Janakie Seneviratne","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/185b3b86db015f70d3bdbf0d6acda95fbc87ffa233b5066305174d77b3709282?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/185b3b86db015f70d3bdbf0d6acda95fbc87ffa233b5066305174d77b3709282?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Janakie Seneviratne"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/jansen\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/may-day-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247327,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247141\/revisions\/247327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}