Strengthening Women’s Leadership through Low-Cost Systems Change: Evidence from a Sri Lankan Tea Manufacturer

Across Asia’s manufacturing sector, women form the backbone of production, concentrated in labour-intensive roles, responsible for quality-critical work, and among the most stable employees on factory floors.

Yet regional evidence points to a persistent leadership gap. Across South and Southeast Asia, women account for 50–80% of manufacturing workers (Women’s World Banking, 2016, p. 4) but less than 30% of management roles (UN Women Asia and the Pacific, 2021). Attrition rises sharply after childbirth, and discretionary promotion systems continue to favour men (World Economic Forum, 2024).

The result is a widespread pattern in which women sustain production but rarely advance to decision-making roles, which means businesses miss out on the strengthened resilience, financial performance, and practices that generally flow from gender-diverse leadership teams (International Labour Organisation, 2019).