Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe ( Sinhala: මෛත්‍රී වික්‍රමසිංහ; born 11 August 1964) was the

First Lady of Sri Lanka First Lady of Sri Lanka (; ) refers to the wife of the President of Sri Lanka. In recent years the holders of the title have been formally or informally referred to by the title First Lady or First Lady of Sri Lanka, though there are no provisio ...

as the wife of President

Ranil Wickremesinghe Ranil Wickremesinghe (; ; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 a ...

. She is a Sri Lankan academic, writer, and professor of English at the

University of Kelaniya The University of Kelaniya (UoK; , ) is a public university in Sri Lanka. Just outside the municipal limits of Colombo, in the city of Kelaniya, the university has two major institutions and seven faculties. History The University of Kelaniy ...

. She specialises in

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

and

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

. Wickremesinghe is the founding director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya and a visiting professor on gender and women's studies at other educational institutions including the

University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...

and

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. She has focused on

gender equity Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

and equality policy strategies, conducting gender sensitisation trainings, and evaluating women's and gender programs for local and international organizations for more than 25 years.

Family and education

The only child of Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe (née Bandaratilaka) of

Nawala Nawala is an up-market residential suburb of Colombo, within the Kotte municipality in the western province of Sri Lanka, and is approximately 6 km south of Colombo City. Nawala lies between the commercial capital Colombo and the administrative ...

, Koswatte, she attended

Musaeus College Musaeus College is a Buddhist private girls' school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The school is named after its founding principal, Marie Musaeus Higgins (1855 – 10 July 1926) from Wismar, Germany, who served as the school's principal from 1891 t ...

, a private girls' school in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. She graduated from

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

with a

BA (Hons) A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in English and went on to complete her MA degree in women's studies at the

. She had gained her Ph.D. degree from the

Institute of Education The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior t ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, specialising in feminist research methodology in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. In 1994, she married

. In July 2022 she became the

when Ranil became the

President of Sri Lanka The president of Sri Lanka ( ''Śrī Laṅkā Janādhipati''; ''Ilaṇkai janātipati'') is the head of state and head of government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union governm ...

. She was the first presidential spouse with a Ph.D. in Sri Lanka.

Academia

Selected publications

*''From Theory to Action – Women, Gender and Development'' (2000), published by Friedrich Ebert Steiftung. *''ITDG (Practical Action) book Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management'' (2003/2005), co-authored (with Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandhu) * ''Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls – Gender at the Workplace'', co-authored with Wijaya Jayatilake and published by the International Labor Organization (2006). *" Feminist Research Methodology – Making Meaning of Meaning Making (2010) published by Rutledge. *" Towards Gender Equity / Equality: A Scan of gender Sensitive Laws, Policies and Programmes in Sri Lanka (2012) published by ILO.

References

External links

Maithree Wickramasinghe
at University of Kelaniya * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wickramasinghe, Maitree 1964 births Living people People from Colombo First ladies and gentlemen of Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan Buddhists Sri Lankan feminists Sri Lankan women academics Sinhalese people Sri Lankan academics Academic staff of the University of Kelaniya Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the University of Colombo Alumni of the UCL Institute of Education Alumni of Musaeus College Maitree Ranil Wickremesinghe 20th-century Sri Lankan women 21st-century Sri Lankan women Sri Lankan feminist writers