Despite Sri Lankan women excelling in aviation and maritime sectors, they remain excluded from railway and certain transport jobs due to outdated policies. This exclusive analysis uncovers the systemic gender bias, the government’s explanation, and what might finally be changing.
Sri Lankan women have reached remarkable heights, dominating skies as pilots and commanding seas as ship captains. Yet, a glaring contradiction remains: these same women are barred from operating trains or holding key positions within the nation’s railway service, which has been running for over 150 years.
Though several locomotives are christened with female names, not a single woman has been recruited to drive a train in Sri Lanka. Similarly, senior roles like station master remain inaccessible. This systematic exclusion from railway jobs stands in stark contrast to Sri Lanka’s history of female political leadership – from the world’s first female Prime Minister to female presidents and the current Prime Minister.
Shockingly, the most recent recruitment call for train drivers and station masters, advertised under the current government’s reform-oriented agenda, explicitly stated: “Only male applicants are eligible.”
This omission raises troubling questions. Was this a bureaucratic oversight or a continuation of entrenched gender discrimination? How can a government committed to transforming the transport sector ignore half its population?
Women continue to break barriers in nearly every other domain. On this year’s International Women’s Day, SriLankan Airlines made headlines with an all-female crew, including pilots, flying 117 passengers out of Katunayake.
In 2017, Colombo Port celebrated a milestone: South Asia’s first female container crane operators, all Sri Lankan. Across the nation, women now drive tuk-tuks, taxis, motorcycles, and work in delivery services. The image of a woman navigating land, sea, and sky is no longer extraordinary.
Globally, women captain cargo ships, pilot fighter jets, and drive trains and buses across Europe and Asia. So why does Sri Lanka’s railway system still exclude them?
Emeritus Professor Amal Kumarage, a respected academic at the University of Moratuwa, believes the issue reflects broader social stagnation. “Technologically, we are behind. Scientifically, we’re underdeveloped. And socially, we fail to embrace gender inclusivity,” he said.
Professor Kumarage underscored a critical paradox: Sri Lanka once led the world in women’s suffrage but now lags in offering meaningful inclusion. “Voting rights are celebrated, but training, empowering, and hiring women in technical fields is slow and neglected,” he said.
His solution is clear: The government must intervene with policy reform that bridges not only gender gaps but also broader social divides.
Ironically, the Transport Minister, Bimal Ratnayake, had himself promised on the eve of Women’s Day to bring change. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “Many railway and bus positions have no women. That must change. We will recruit women into all these fields. One day soon, I dream of female school bus drivers and train operators.”
So why then were the recent railway job postings gender-exclusive?
Addressing the backlash on Facebook, Minister Ratnayake admitted he was unaware that women were historically barred from applying for these roles. He claimed he only discovered this limitation after assuming office.
The issue, he explained, lies in the outdated Railway Service Constitution, which must be amended before women can legally be considered for these posts.
He added that in December, the ministry urgently requested the recruitment of 909 railway staff due to chronic shortages. The recruitment process, approved by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the Public Service Commission, proceeded under the old constitution, hence limiting eligibility to men.
“Delaying this urgent intake to rewrite the constitution would have crippled the service. Some posts had been vacant for over seven years, causing strikes,” Ratnayake noted. “We decided to fill them now and fix the rules for future rounds.”
He assured that the ministry has already informed key railway unions of its new inclusive policy. Amendments are underway to open future intakes to women.
In his March 7 budget speech, the Minister reiterated his commitment: “This is not about tokenism. It’s our social vision. Men and women must work together. Women have driven SLTB buses since the 1960s. It’s time we officially brought them back and more.”
He said new school buses are being designed with the vision of female drivers and conductors in mind.
Critics, however, accuse the Ministry of inaction, noting that these changes have long been discussed but never implemented. Ratnayake dismissed such commentary as performative outrage: “Many of these critics haven’t even ridden a train in years, let alone proposed reforms.”
Despite the derailment of railway inclusivity, he insisted, “Our conscience and policies remain firmly on track.”
Railway General Manager Dhammika Jayasundara confirmed the ministry’s directives. “The male-only rule has existed from the beginning. But we are finally changing that.”
The change is long overdue. For a nation that proudly raised the world’s first female Prime Minister, the question isn’t whether women should drive trains. It’s why they haven’t already.
About the Author
I read recently that the Railway was hiring Station Masters but only men could apply. Very outdated. In many parts of the world, today Woman are in every physical roll from Train drivers to heavy machinery operators, except in Sri Lanka.