This is the fourth in a series of articles about female role models we can all look up to.
In this part of the female role models series, we’re talking about the first democratically elected female prime minister in the world. Not the first female head of any specific nation, but the first woman ever to be elected by the general public to be their national leader.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s husband was assassinated in 1959. He was at the time the Prime Minister of what was then known as Ceylon. Bandaranaike herself had garnered no political intentions never mind ambitions. But her husband’s party convinced her to take his place as leader. In 1960, the people of Ceylon proved her decision to be prudent.
Born into a wealthy landowning family, Bandaranaike was raised as Christian but converted, along with her husband who was also a Christian, to Buddhism after they were married. She spent the rest of her life trying to impose Buddhism on the Sri Lankan people. We will come back to her penchant for imposing things on her electorate.
When her party won the general election in 1960, quite overwhelmingly, Bandaranaike became the first female elected head of state. She went on to serve three terms in that office: 1960-65, 1970-77 and 1994-2000 (as figurehead). After she took office, she faced exactly the sort of backlash you would expect. Right-wing forces both within and outside her party doubted her leadership abilities for no reasons other than her gender. Many worried that she may not be able to stand up to the strong men of the rest of the world.
She, however, proved all critics wrong. As her daughter, Sunethra, told the BBC in a short documentary about her, Bandaranaike was a tough-talking individual who held her ground whenever she negotiated one-to-one with world leaders. She spoke fluent English and refused to back down from her demands if she considered them legitimate.
In the same short film, Sunethra Bandaranaike adds that her mother had been shy and reticent as a woman brought up in a pseudo-Victorian society was expected to be. But she was able to overcome her personal and socially-ingrained flaws to become an iron-fisted leader who was responsible for Ceylon breaking away from the United Kingdom and becoming an independent republic in the form of Sri Lanka.
Now, coming back to her penchant for imposition; strong women, much as strong men, have the tendency to go too far. Although Bandaranaike was a leftist by ideology, her ethnonationalism caused the beginning of the Tamil separatist movement. Her government made Sinhalese the official language of Sri Lanka which alienated the minority Tamil community. She dealt with the separatists ruthlessly.
Her socialism had positive consequences as well. She went against Britain and the USA and nationalised all foreign businesses. She also worked towards the upliftment of rural women and girls and established the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs in Sri Lanka in 1975.
But, an inability to tolerate dissent and the constant imposition of Sinhalese nationalist policies brought an end to Bandaranaike’s second term as Prime Minister in what was a humiliating lesson in democracy.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike is by no means the cleanest of role models. However, she is a trailblazer who has since been followed by a number of strong women leaders across the world. She stood by her principles and should be celebrated for boldly going where no woman had gone before. At the same time, as with all role models, male or female, a sense of perspective is always important.
References:
My Trailblazing Mother, the World's First Woman Prime Minister. 21 Nov. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-55002773.
Desk, India Today Web. “First Female Prime Minister in the World Sirimavo Bandaranaike: Interesting Facts about the Sri Lankan Stateswoman.” India Today, 8 Mar. 2020, www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/first-female-prime-minister-in-the-world-sirimavo-bandaranaike-1653592-2020-03-08.
The Editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica. “Sirimavo Bandaranaike.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Oct. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sirimavo-Bandaranaike
“Sirimavo Bandaranaike.” Hindustan Times, 20 Apr. 2004, www.hindustantimes.com/india/sirimavo-bandaranaike/story-IDxWJNXbsk5pMtIriVjFsI.html.
Photo Source:
United Press International (UPI) - Library of Congress "New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection", Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74439684.
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