"Women and men in the world are so close to opportunities thanks to digitalization and the internet for the first time. We are moving from labour and muscle intensive jobs to more mind and thought intensive jobs. Our dependence on space and time eliminated through digitalization. All of these bring men and women equal to the same point start line as never before. The change has begun, so be a part of it. Let's see the real potential of men and women. Let us prepare hand in hand as women and men the best future of all times."

“Let’s rewrite the rules for equality in business.”

In her opening speech, TurkishWIN and BinYaprak Founder Melek Pulatkonak emphasized that Turkey’s wasting the largest natural sources are women and young people and also said:

"Today, A woman has a name in business life, but her job is quite difficult. According to the results of our BinYaprak and Xsights equality research, while the rate of men who think that women should not work after marriage is 25%, this rate is 14% among women. Five out of ten men (51%) believe that women need permission from their husbands to work. The ratio of women who agree with this idea is 36%. This is the case in Turkey in 2018.

The future will come completely different. Jobs that 65% of children studying in primary school today will do have not yet been invented. Therefore, digital transformation changes the rules of the game. The speed of change will never be slower than today's. We all have to bring the potential of women, who are the natural resources of our country, to light at work. Let's rewrite the equality rules."

 “Women’s entrepreneurship needs to be strengthened for 2023 goals.”

Speaking at the Summit KAGİDER Board Member Bahar Kayserioğlu emphasized that the public and private sector should work together to develop women’s entrepreneurship and said:

“Governments need to improve women entrepreneurs’ access to financial resources, training programs, networks of consulting and coaching opportunities to support growing women-owned businesses, producing innovation and trading internationally. Policies aimed at purchasing from women-owned companies should be adopted and applied by governments and companies.”

Kayserilioğlu continued as follows:

“We have been working with all our energies for 15 years with the awareness that women’s entrepreneurship will directly affect women’s employment thus development will come with it. When KAGİDER established 15 years ago, the rate of the female entrepreneur was 4% in Turkey. In the past 15 years, this rate has doubled and reached 8%. This rate is also too low. Women’s entrepreneurship is very important for women’s empowerment. Entrepreneurial women also create employment for other women in business life and spend their earnings by dividing them into different sectors. Therefore, the gain of women brings with the strengthening of the economy. We believe that women’s entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment are one of the basic requirements in achieving the 2023 goals as KAGİDER.”

“We believe that the potential of women will raise our organization and economy to higher levels.”

UPS Turkey General Manager Ufku Akaltan: "We featured the women's leadership and women in the economy in Turkey as continuing our operations in other countries. Since 2010 we have supported the Women's Leadership Development Program in Turkey. We organized career development training and seminars to support the development of our female employees and to offer career opportunities thanks to this program. We have determined strengthening the role of women in business life and society as one of our most important goals. We believe that the potential of women will raise our organization and economy to higher levels, and we work with great dedication and awareness in this field."

After Ufuk Akaltan’s speech WOB Turkey Board Member, Vodafone Turkey Deputy CEO responsible for Human Resources Pınar Kalay pointed out that there is a huge gap regarding the representation of women in leadership positions today, and added:

"In 5 of the nine characteristics that make a difference in leadership, women are in a superior position. Women bring a richer perspective, empathy, teamwork, conceptual thinking competencies, strategic perspective to the organization or company they work. We see that the rate of female leaders is extremely low despite the superiority of their managerial skills and their economic contribution. It is important to increase the representation and effectiveness of women in senior management for making a difference in global competition. Today, female managers lead the most important companies -from technology to banking- and the World's most successful enterprises. According to the researches, companies that mind gender equality in senior management perform 41% better in equity profitability and 56% in operating results compared to companies that do not have any female managers in senior management. For instance, we care to create a corporate culture where men and women can benefit from equal opportunities at Vodafone Turkey. We prioritize placing women candidates in the seat of every manager who left the senior or middle management or whose role has changed. Our rate of female employees is 42% and well above the sector average of 24%, and our rate of female employees in middle and senior positions is 33%. We progress our efforts to increase this rate to 50%."

“It is more possible than ever to provide equal opportunities for women with the widespread use of digital technologies and easier access to education, information and job opportunities. It should not be forgotten that investing in women means investing in the future and future generations. As WOB Turkey, we have a structure where the representatives of many institutions come together to learn and develop together and embrace the same mission, we mind this issue and continue our efforts to increase the number of high-level female employees in decision-making bodies.”

The summit was moderated by Founder of TurkishWIN and BinYaprak Melek Pulatkonak, Vodafone Turkey Deputy CEO responsible for Human Resources Pınar Kalay, and KAGİDER Board Member and Karuna Management Consultancy Founder and Management Advisor Bakar Kayserilioğlu and the speakers were Founder of Duman Consultancy and YenidenBiz Board Member Yiğit Oğuz Duman, EnerjiSA Energy HR Group Manager (Ability and Award Management) Tuğba Gök, Accenture Partner and Executive Manager Funda Haktanır, Koç Holding Inc. Human Resources Director Özgür Burak Akkol, Egon Zehnder Executive Partner Burcu Bıçakçı, Microsoft Corporate Services Deputy General Manager Eda Uluca, UPS Turkey General Manager Ufuk Akaltan, Boyner Holding Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Director Aysun Sayın, Hepsiburada Commercial Group President Emre Ekmekçi and Arya Women Investment Platform Secretary-General Deniz Duygu.

About Women Leadership Platform:

Women's Leadership Platform was established with the cooperation of KAGIDER that works with the primary objective of improving women's entrepreneurship and leadership in Turkey, Turkish Women’s International Network (TurkishWIN) that is a global sharing platform for all women who are the citizens of the world, and UPS that works for women to develop their leadership in the countries where it has operations. The platform aims to raise awareness by enabling the corporate leaders that strive to promote women leadership and employment to share ideas and experiences among themselves. The Women Leadership Platform, which held its first event in Istanbul on February 26, 2014, meets four times a year and shares examples of successful women talent management in the private sector, and ensures that the opinion leaders meet regularly and exchange views.