Today for #WomensHistoryMonth I want to recognize Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first

Today for #WomensHistoryMonth I want to recognize Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first Female Prime Minister and leader of the (socialist) Freedom Party of Sri Lanka. Bandaranaike served a total of 3 terms and 40 years in office. During her reign, she managed to nationalize seven newspapers by creating a corporation in which the public and government held shares. She removed private state-aided schools and retained the portfolios of External Affairs and Defence in order to direct a foreign policy based on neutrality. One of her most prominent policies included the India Pact of 1964 that granted a displaced population of 600,000 Indian Tamils repatriation and 375,000 Sri Lankans citizenship. In the elections of 1965 Bandaranaike was defeated by her rival for office but she made an unexpected comeback in 1970, and displayed her strength by quelling a major insurrection. Prompted by her sense of social justice, though, she gave away almost all her land. In 1941, Sirimavo joined the Lanka Mahila Samiti, the primary women’s movement organization in Ceylon, which strove to improve the conditions of rural women in the island country. One of the organization’s goals was to launch a massive food production effort to meet the shortages that became acute during World War II. As secretary of the western province group of Samiti, Bandaranaike worked with experts and goiyas (farmers) to introduce new methods of growing crops that increased paddy yields by more than 150 fold. She did not agree with the commonly held assessment that the peasants made no efforts on their own. Practical and elemental in her ideas and approach, she once remarked, “I came to know at first-hand the agony as well as the ecstasy of the farmer.” Family planning and political rights for women were also among the causes she supported and championed for while in office. #HerStory #SirimavoBandaranike #FemaleLeaders #SriLanka -- source link

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