Yale-NUS College
Politics & International Relations
Female Political Participation in Sri Lanka: Are Women in Parliament Gatekeepers?
Shenali Wijesinghe is a recent graduate of Yale-NUS College, where she was awarded a merit scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, majoring in Global Affairs and minoring in Arts and Humanities. During her time at university, she enjoyed working on gendered research focused on the region of South Asia. Her final-year thesis, under the supervision of her advisor Professor Rohan Mukherjee, was centered on identifying the obstacles women in the Sri Lankan parliament face under a more microscopic lens, which involved focusing on the individuals themselves. Her thesis was inspired by her vested interest in her home, Sri Lanka, having had the lowest proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments for over a decade.
Shenali hopes to continue to advocate for policies that promote a future that is gender-responsive by design, which then allows for an enabling environment for the empowerment of women and girls. During her free time, she is also passionate about writing and reading poetry.