In Nelibewa, a village in Sri Lanka, women have harnessed the opportunities offered by the changes in colonialism, global capitalism, and the trends in migration nationally and transnationally to not only enhance their own positions within society but also modernise their houses and the village. This article investigates the women-led modernisation of Nelibewa at the intersection of gender and space, commenting specifically on how women have enhanced their social standing in the process. The article focuses on two major initiatives by women in this process: emigrating as domestic workers and joining national-level garment factories. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, it demonstrates how women have changed the space of the household and the village in their favour, at each stage uplifting their own livelihoods and making the village safer for women. Although they do not overtly contest existing power structures and appear to support patriarchy and capitalism, by redefining their meanings and spaces women have radically transformed the social and spatial structures of the village and the households in their favour.
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