TÜSİAD made a statement on March 8 International Women's Day

“Only men and women working together, we can attain our economic and democratic targets.”

TÜSİAD made a statement on March 8 International Women's Day. The statement is as follows:

“Turkey aims to be tenth largest economy of the world by 2023, and its greatest force to attain this target is its women whose potential is still underused. Equal access to the opportunities and active participation of women to the education, economy, politics, and every field of social life is a prerequisite of democracy and social progress as well as the main factor to accelerate development. In this context, only men and women working together, we can attain our economic and democratic targets.

“There is a huge gender gap in economic and political participation, in accessing to the healthcare and education in our country and many public, private and civil society institution work hard with the goal of closing this gap. “Equality at Work Platform” established at the initiative of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy and co-chaired by two private sector institutions, Doğuş Holding A.Ş and Hacı Ömer Sabancı Holding A.Ş and targeting to reduce the gender gap to 10% in three years, is a hope inspiring example.

“TÜSİAD believes that the gender equality in education, in participation to the working life and politics and the human rights of women are crucial. We are pleased that the ratio of women in the total employment of our member companies is 35%, which is higher than average of Turkey, and we encourage further increase of this figure. TÜSİAD Gender Equality Working Group active since 2000 has produced many research reports, a conference and a documentary film titled "We Cannot Fly to the Future with One Wing", and last year in collaboration with the World Bank and Ministry of Family and Social Policy it organized a series of seminars titled “Anatolia Step by Step: Job Opportunities for Women” in a number of cities. This series of seminars is continuing this year as well.

“TÜSİAD will persist in its effort and support for a social transformation to make gender equality a de facto rule.”