World’s First Female Head of Government

She served as prime minister three times

Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was by no means the only woman to be elected to high political office on a ‘sympathy vote,’ following the sudden death of her spouse while the latter was in situ.

However, Sirimavo – as she came to be known affectionately; and also reverentially – was certainly the first woman prime minister to succeed her premier husband (the redoubtable S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, felled by a bullet in a possible political conspiracy).

Hailing from a prominent aristocratic Sinhalese family, Sirimavo was educated at Roman Catholic schools but remained a Buddhist and spoke English as well as she did Sinhala. Although she was active in social programmes in her own right and an informal advisor to her public figure husband, the lady remained largely inconsequential in the political arena.

But all that changed sudden and shockingly in 1959, when Bandaranaike was assassinated and ‘Mrs. B.’ (as she came to be known) was persuaded by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – which was founded by her late husband – to take over the reins as both its chairperson and candidate at the next polls.

She prevailed against (up to that time twice prime minister) Dudley Senanayake’s United National Party (UNP) at the general elections of July 1960 and went to become premier again in 1970, after suffering an electoral defeat at the hand of the UNP in 1965, following her first term in office.

Sirimavo served in the high national office of Prime Minister of Ceylon and then Sri Lanka as many as three times – as its executive from 1960 to 1965, and between 1970 and 1977; as well as in a secondary role as premier under the executive presidency of her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Her career at the helm of the island’s national affairs produced mixed results, being marked by a dismally underdeveloped economy at home – including high inflation, taxes and unemployment; a dependence on imports and subsequent rationing, following the closing of the economy; and polarisation of Sinhalese and Tamils – while earning her country accolades overseas for the leadership she provided to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Her career at the helm of the island’s national affairs produced mixed results, being marked by a dismally underdeveloped economy at home… while earning her country accolades overseas