Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls - International Labour ...

Table 2 indicates the major occupational categories women and men
occupy in both the public and private sectors.
Although there was a two to one ratio of men to women in the overall
workforce, there were fewer numbers of women in the sales and service
sector. However, there were more women clerks, skilled agricultural workers,
fishery workers, and craftsperson than was expected. An important point to
note is that these numbers did not include the large numbers of unskilled
women workers in agriculture. On the whole, Table 2 illustrates that large
numbers of the female and male workforce were concentrated in lower level
occupations.
Table 3 provides the overall labour force participation rate (excluding the
Northern and Eastern Provinces) for the year 2002, while Table 4 gives an
indication of the percentage of employee distribution according to economic
activity in the Colombo District in the year 2001.
Table 3: Percentage of Employees distributed according to Economic
Activity (Colombo District)
Labour Force Participation Working Age
Rate (2002) Men Women
Colombo District 65.8 28.7
Adaptation (Department of Census and Statistics)
Table 4: Percentage of Employee Distribution by Economic Activity
(Colombo District)
Employment by Economic Activity (2001) Colombo District
(Percentage)
Male
Female
Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing 2.3% 1.5%
Industry 25.7% 34.7%
Services 72.0% 63.8%
Adaptation (Department of Census and Statistics)
8