Maitree Wickremasinghe

Maithree Wickramasinghe (born 11 August 1954) is a Sri Lankan academic and Professor of English at the University of Kelaniya. She is the second wife of Ranil Wickremasinghe the current Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, she is the founder director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya and is a visiting professor on gender and women's studies at other educational institutions including the University of Colombo and University of Sussex. Maithree Wickramasinghe has delivered keynotes and addressed plenaries at academic and professional fora in the US, Spain, Kenya, India, Pakistan, South Korea and China. She has over 25 years of experience in formulating gender equity and equality polices/strategies, conducting gender sensitization trainings and evaluating women’s and gender programs for local and international organizations.

The only child of the late Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe (née Bandaratilaka) of Nawala, Koswatte. She is an old girl of Musaeus College. She graduated from King's College London with a BA (Hons) degree in the English and went on to complete her MA degree in Women’s Studies at the University of Colombo. She had gained her PhD degree from the Institute of Education, University of London specializing on feminist research methodology in Sri Lanka. In 2005 she married Ranil Wickremasinghe.

She is the current second lady of Sri Lanka from January 9, 2015.

• From Theory to Action - Women, Gender and Development (2000), published by Friedrich Ebert Steiftung.
• ITDG (Practical Action) book Gender Dimensions in Disaster Management (2003/2005),co-authored (with Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandhu)
• Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls – Gender at the Workplace, co-authored with Wijaya Jayatilake and published by the International Labor Organization (2006).
• " Feminist Research Methodology - Making Meaning of Meaning Making (2010) published by Rutledge.
• " Towards Gender Equity / Equality: A Scan of gender Sensitive Laws, Policies and Programmes in Sri Lanka (2012) published by ILO.