| Maithree Wickremasinghe | |
| Office: | 8th First Lady of Sri Lanka |
| Status: | Current |
| Term Label: | Assumed role |
| Term Start: | 21 July 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Ioma Rajapaksa |
| President: | Ranil Wickremesinghe |
| Office2: | First Lady of Sri Lanka |
| Term Label2: | In role |
| Term2: | 8 January 2015 |
| Term End2: | 17 November 2019 |
| Term3: | 2001 |
| Term End3: | 2004 |
| Prime Minister: | Ranil Wickremesinghe |
| Education: | Musaeus College, Colombo |
| Alma Mater: | |
| Birth Date: | 11 August 1964 |
| Birth Place: | Nawala, Dominion of Ceylon |
| Occupation: | Professor |
| Blank1: | Work Institutions |
| Data1: | University of Kelaniya |
| Blank2: | Field |
| Data2: | Gender and women's studies |
| Native Name Lang: | si |
Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe (Sinhala: මෛත්රී වික්රමසිංහ; born 11 August 1964) is the current 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.[1] She specializes in gender and women's studies.[2] [3] [4]
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 sensitization trainings, and evaluating women's and gender programs for local and international organizations for more than 25 years.
The only child of Senevi B. Wickremasinghe and Shiranee Wickremasinghe (née Bandaratilaka) 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, specializing 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.[5] She is the first presidential spouse with a Ph.D. in Sri Lanka.