Paper Title
Unseen Barriers For Women Career Advancements In Sri Lanka

Abstract
With the accepting that the women are under-represented in decision-making positions in almost all countries and an increasing awareness of this fact, led various interest groups to engage in extensive research and policy-making activities allowing more gender diversity and equality within the workplaces. Particularly in Sri Lanka including most of the Asian countries, this situation is seriously taken into consideration and taken numerous steps to broaden the opportunities for the women, to climb up their career ladder. Having given them increased room for higher education and training opportunities, designed organizational changes, legal accommodations and different policy related initiatives to ensure gender equality and career advancement opportunities to reach positions of decision making, still there is no significant expansion in women career advancement and women leadership roles in most of the workplaces in Sri Lanka. This situation is the focal point of this study. Since very few studies have been dedicated to discourse the unseen barriers which are innate with most of the Sri Lankan women, the present study tried to explore unseen barriers for women career advancement in Sri Lanka. By means of qualitative inquiry the study explored that lack of self-exploration, gender stereotyping, emotional exhaustion and extensive emotional attachment to their families are playing major barriers in women for their career advancement. Keywords� Women Career Advancement, Gender Equality, Gender Diversity, Self-Exploration, Gender Stereotyping, Emotional Attachment, Emotional Exhaustion.