Title: Plantation Patriarchy and Structural Violence: Women Workers in Sri Lanka

Using the case of Sri Lanka, this paper argues that plantations were patriarchal institutions that perpetuated structural violence against women workers. ‘Plantation patriarchy’ incorporated social hierarchies and gender biases stemming from colonialism, race, caste, ethnicity, religion and culture into the structure of the labour regime and in the social organisation on plantations, justifying and normalising the subordinate status of women workers. Under its influence women workers were for nearly two centuries (a) placed under male authority at all levels (b) exposed to physical and sexual violence (b) paid lower wages and worked longer hours than their male counterparts (c) largely responsible for the reproductive chores in the household (e) denied equal access to education, health and other welfare services and (f) excluded from political leadership. The long-term denial of their life chances, the comprehensive controls of plantation patriarchy as well as the relative isolation of the workers from the wider society, allowed structural violence against women workers to be a durable characteristic of Sri Lankan plantations.