Kumari Jayawardena taught Political Science at the University of Colombo, 1969-1985, when she retired as Associate Professor. During the years 1980-82, she taught at the Institute of Social Studies at the Hague, and was an Affiliate Fellow at the Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, USA in 1987-88. She is currently a Senior Fellow of the Graduate Studies Institute of Colombo University. She also serves as Secretary of the Social Scientists' Association, a group of concerned scholars working on ethnic, gender, caste and other issues.

Her books include:
The Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon(Duke University Press, 1972)
Ethnic and Class Conflicts in Ceylon (1985)
Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (Zed Books, 1986)
The White Woman's Other Burden: Western Women and South Asia during British Rule (Routledge, 1995).
Embodied Violence: Communalising Women's Sexuality in South Asia (coedited) (Zed Books and Kali for Women, 1998).