Bridging the Gap: Gender Inequality in Sri Lanka’s Tea Industry and the Need for Fair Pricing
- Lisa Keerthichandra
- May 3
- 5 min read
Sri Lanka’s tea industry has long been celebrated for its rich flavors and heritage. Yet, beneath the rolling green hills and carefully plucked leaves lies a deep-rooted issue that has persisted for generations—gender inequality.
Female tea pluckers form the backbone of this industry, often performing the most labor-intensive work with little recognition or fair compensation. This month's blog post is designed to dive deep into the gender inequalities that have dominated the tea industry in Sri Lanka (and globally) for more than a century.
We look at what we, as tea drinkers, can (and should) do to help these women be seen as more than just an image of smiling faces in the rolling mountains; selling the idyllic image of tea production.
Owl & Monkey Tea believe in changing this narrative by ensuring we foster a policy of fair pricing that is direct to farm. In doing so this directly benefits the women whose lives are dedicated to tea plucking, and elevates both the quality of tea and the livelihoods of those who harvest it.
The Invisible Workforce Behind Every Cup
Women account for the majority of tea pluckers in Sri Lanka, meticulously selecting the finest leaves to maintain the industry’s high standards. Their work is physically demanding, requiring precision, patience, and endurance under challenging conditions. Yet, despite their crucial role, female tea workers face systemic disadvantages—lower wages compared to their male counterparts, minimal job security, and limited access to education and career growth opportunities. Many live in harsh conditions on tea estates, struggling to provide for their families despite the global demand for their labor.
For female tea pluckers the days in the tea fields are long, dangerous, and physically demanding. Starting with a long hike, they often walk miles just to get to the fields.
In the tea fields, wearing both inadequate clothing and shoes, they face a barrage of threats from nature including snake bites and leeches. The women must pick 15kg of tea leaves a day to make their basic pay, so they work long hours in extreme weather.
Estates are meant to provide water for the pluckers, and toilet facilities in the fields; but these all too often don't exist.
At the end of full day plucking leaves the women are exhausted, dehydrated, in desperate need of the facilities. Yet they must walk many kilometers back to the allocated weighing areas with their heavy bags of leaves, before they can make their journey home.
These women are incredibly strong and resilient, they have to be, its a tough job. But its not the hard work that undermines them; in fact its the hard work that defines their true strength of character.
It's the inequalities that these women face in the tea industry that continues to suppress them and keep them from having a voice. Its these inequalities that prevents them from living a life in which they can thrive, be creative and be successful.
They are simply invisible, unless being forced to smile for the cameras.
Having lived in Sri Lanka for over a decade we worked closely with the tea communities. We were shocked to learn that whilst the daily rate of pay for tea workers is now the same for both men and for women (a step that was only corrected very recently), the hours in which they must work is still far from equal.
The female workers must pluck leaves from 8am until 4pm, walk back to the weighing areas with their heavy bags, and then their daily wage is determined by the amount of kilos they have plucked that day.
For the same rate of pay the male workers finish at 1pm, and have no quotas to meet.
The system is steeped in masculine and patriarchal dominance which has defined the tea communities for centuries, and continues even today. More than 500,000 female tea workers in Sri Lanka (and the generations that came before them) have been subjected to meagre wages, inhumane working conditions and political marginalization for nearly 200 years. And it sadly doesn't stop there.
The mistreatment of female tea pluckers goes deeper than inadequate and unequal wages. They are subjected to exploitation, discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse on a daily basis. Access to education and healthcare is far from equal, as is the ability to report crimes against them.
Pregnancy for female tea pluckers is particularly distressing as women are forced to continue working during pregnancy. They are denied the necessary support and care that these vulnerable women so rightly deserve, and the consequences are all too often dire.
And with high rates of girls being forced to drop out of school to work in the communities, many female tea workers express that their deepest fears isn't of the abuse and harassment that they face, but the abuse and harassment that their young daughters face.
As a family with young Sri Lankan daughters ourselves, this truly rips at our hearts and fuels an even deeper purpose to drive the change that is so desperately needed here.
Fair Prices Lead to Meaningful Change
The global tea market has long been driven by the search for low-cost production, often at the expense of fair labor practices. Sri Lanka is heavily reliant on trading commodity teas, which means the margins made on tea are kept very low.
Why? Because consumers who are drinking the vast amounts of tea produced in developing countries are still expecting to buy their tea for very little money, despite tea being highly labour and production intensive.
Like with much of the food industry however, the blame cannot lie with the consumers because they've seldom been exposed to the full journey of the products they buy. The control of pricing falls more firmly with the companies that are buying the leaves and selling them on to consumers.
We understand that cheap tea comes at a human cost—one that disproportionately affects women in the industry.
So by committing to paying higher prices for better quality tea leaves, sourced directly from tea farms, we can help to ensure the financial benefits reach the women who work tirelessly to produce these incredible teas.
Fair pricing leads to:
Improved Wages & Working Conditions: When tea farms receive better compensation, they can afford to pay workers fairly, providing wages that reflect the true value of their labor.
Economic Independence for Women: Fair wages empower female tea pluckers to invest in education, healthcare, and future opportunities for their families.
Higher Quality Tea Production: Ethical sourcing practices encourage farms to prioritize quality over quantity, resulting in better-tasting and sustainably produced tea.
A Shared Responsibility for Ethical Tea
As a brand committed to integrity and responsibility, we recognize that real change in the tea industry starts with conscious decisions.
Choosing to invest in fair trade and direct farm partnerships is more than a business strategy—it’s a commitment to a future where Sri Lanka’s female tea workers receive the dignity, respect, and financial security they deserve.
It's a commitment to recognising and working towards a world where no women (and no person) should ever be so integral to an industry, yet be so undervalued and unseen.
Every sip of tea should carry a story of empowerment, sustainability, and fairness. The spirit of tea should live within all of us, whether we are the hands that make the tea it or the lips that sip the tea.
By standing with women in the industry, we are not only ensuring superior tea quality but also advocating for justice within a system that has marginalized its most valuable workers for far too long.
Our dream is to be a small part of the change that is needed to transform the tea industry into one that values people as much as it does the product.
Because when women thrive, communities flourish—and so does the tea we drink.
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