Women in Jaffna district, Sri Lanka, show a high rate of participation and progress in the public sector. However, at senior managerial level, their representation is comparatively lower than that of men. Therefore, two studies were carried out with the principal objective of identifying barriers to career advancement of women at the middle managerial levels of the public sector in the Jaffna district. An equal number of men and women at secondary and tertiary levels in the public sector in Jaffna participated in the studies. In Study 1, 40 officers were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires, the results of which were then content analysed. In Study 2, a structured questionnaire was administered to investigate the experiences of 120 officers. Cluster analysis and descriptive analysis were performed to examine the nature of these barriers to career advancement of both men and women. Individual barriers and sociocultural barriers were identified as stronger barriers to women than men, and organizational barriers were identified as stronger barriers to men than women.