Maithree Wickremesinghe

Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe was the First Lady of Sri Lanka as the wife of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. She is a Sri Lankan academic, writer, and professor of English at the University of Kelaniya. She specialises in gender and women's studies.
Wickremesinghe is the founding director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya and a visiting professor on gender and women's studies at other educational institutions including the University of Colombo and University of Sussex. She has focused on gender equity and equality policy strategies, conducting gender sensitisation trainings, and evaluating women's and gender programs for local and international organizations for more than 25 years.

Family and education

The only child of Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe of Nawala, Koswatte, she attended Musaeus College, a private girls' school in Colombo. She graduated from King's College London with a BA (Hons) degree in English and went on to complete her MA degree in women's studies at the University of Colombo. She had gained her Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Education, University of London, specialising in feminist research methodology in Sri Lanka. In 1994, she married Ranil Wickremesinghe. In July 2022 she became the First Lady of Sri Lanka when Ranil became the President of Sri Lanka. She was the first presidential spouse with a Ph.D. in Sri Lanka.

Academia

Selected publications

From Theory to Action – Women, Gender and Development, published by Friedrich Ebert Steiftung.
ITDG book Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management, co-authored
Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls – Gender at the Workplace, co-authored with Wijaya Jayatilake and published by the International Labor Organization.
" Feminist Research Methodology – Making Meaning of Meaning Making published by Rutledge.
" Towards Gender Equity / Equality: A Scan of gender Sensitive Laws, Policies and Programmes in Sri Lanka published by ILO.

2015 presidential election speculation

In late 2014, Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe was mentioned in some media reports as a possible common candidate for the 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election if major political leaders chose not to run. These mentions were part of informal speculation and did not lead to an official nomination. She did not contest the election, which eventually saw Maithripala Sirisena selected as the unified opposition candidate.