Sirimavo Bandaranaike: first woman in Ceylon

Women's place

It created a sensation when a woman suddenly rose up as prime minister of Ceylon in 1960. The news went around the world. A female prime minister – was it possible? And in Ceylon? Not an industrialised country with a developed democracy, but a poor island in Asia that had recently been a British colony! In Britain, people were both enthusiastic and sceptical. Some welcomed a woman in government. The dream of the suffragettes had suddenly come true. A London newspaper noted that we had to invent a new word: ‘stateswoman’ instead of statesman. But could a woman like Sirimavo Bandaranaike fill the position? She was chosen because of her husband. Never before had anyone come to power in a flood of tears. Who was behind her pulling the strings? In Ceylon, opponents dismissed her as merely a ‘kitchen woman’. To this, she replied: ‘A woman's place is everywhere and anywhere duty requires her to be and also in her kitchen!’ (Seneviratne, 1975:204, emphasis in original; see also Malhotra, 2003: 232).

Throughout the ages, mostly men had command of the world. In modern times, with democratic systems, women got the right to vote. However, very few women participated in politics, and those who did, almost never obtained important positions. Politics was a matter for men. A female top politician was unthinkable.

‘Weeping Widow’

How could it be that Sirimavo Bandaranaike broke the prevailing pattern of gender roles and became prime minister of Ceylon not only once, but three times, and one of the most important political leaders in the country?

She was called the ‘Weeping Widow’ when she travelled around in her white mourning garments in what was then Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) in 1959. Western newspapers showed pictures of a pale woman with dark shadows under her eyes, describing her as both ‘voluptuous’ and ‘seductive’ (Gooneratne, 1986: 160).

Mrs B, as people called her, was a rarity when she engaged in politics. In ancient times in the country, queens sometimes led men to victory over enemies and rivals. But in modern Ceylon, men dominated, even after women got the right to vote in 1931. Sirimavo's husband, SWRD Bandaranaike, was a politician. He was educated in Oxford, became a lawyer and played a central role in Ceylon's transition from a colony to an independent state.