Did you say empowering women?

The Boyner Group, one of the leading companies in the non-food retail sector, announced recently that it was cooperating with the World Bank?s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support women entrepreneurs in the supply chain.

The Boyner Group is one of the first companies in Turkey that signed the UN?s ?Women?s Empowerment Principles.? The number of companies that agreed on these principles is around 20, I think. 

Among major groups such as Boyner, Sabanc? and Borusan, there are also small and medium sized enterprises like Suteks in the textile sector and Aras in the cargo sector. 

One should not underestimate the social dimension of the private sector?s efforts to empower women, especially in the business world. For example, a project Borusan Holding is conducting with the Ministry of Family and Social Policies includes the opening of crèches in industry zones. 

With the opening of day care centers, more women are able to work, or, in other words, be ?empowered.?
However, there is a long road ahead of us in the empowerment of women with business life. 

According to Dimitris Tsitsigaros, Deputy Head of the IFC, only 22 percent of full time workers in Turkey are women. Women in top management positions are found only in 5 percent of Turkish companies. Among executive boards of the companies in Borsa Istanbul, only 11 percent of them are women. 

In the ?Gender Gap? report of the World Economic Forum, Turkey is 125th among 142 countries. Ever since the Women?s Conference in Beijing in 1995, I am interested in this issue and I think women?s empowerment should use an integrated approach.

Women?s empowerment should be hand in hand with social, political and employment fields so that it works. In a...