Women in Sri Lanka experience various forms of structural inequality and gender barriers that limit their engagement in the labour market. At the backdrop of these existing barriers, decades of civil war have exacerbated gendered experiences of discrimination and have increased the financial and social responsibilities of women within their households. With a notable increase in female heads of households in Sri Lanka, it is increasingly more important to identify barriers women face in supporting their households and to develop meaningful policies to support them. By way of using 120 in-depth interviews from the districts of Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Jaffna, and Vavuniya this report contextualizes the narratives of women in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka in the post-war context in order to illustrate their diverse experiences of labour engagement, the barriers they face when engaging in livelihoods, the direct impacts that the war has had on their lives and their livelihoods and implications for policy.