Female labour force participation in Sri Lanka with special reference to graduate women

This study is an analysis of the economic activity of women focussing on secondary and university educational development in Sri Lanka. In this study males are compared to females to ascertain levels of labour force participation of females; all women are compared to graduate women to show the effects of education on labour force participation of women. Educational policies prevalent in Sri Lanka have resulted in an expansion of secondary and university education for females. However, currently available sources of data are inadequate to study the quality of education or the effects of education on socio-demographic and sociocultural and economic factors that influence labour force participation of females. Differences in definitions used by different censuses and surveys to collect information on the economic activity of the population of Sri Lanka create serious problems of comparability of time series data. Even though the male labour force in Sri Lanka is larger than the female labour force, the female labour force has grown much faster with increasing numbers of educated females entering the labour force. Those with education up to university level have tended to have the highest levels of labour force participation, with more than 90 per cent of graduate women being employed. Most graduate women are employed in the government sector in professional, technical and related occupations, with a majority in the teaching profession. A considerable number of female graduates are in mismatched employment. Unemployment is acute among economically active females, particularly those who have junior and senior secondary educational qualifications