Women back to business with Turkish social venture YenidenBiz

YenidenBiz has organized more than 50 trainings and workshops to date. There are more than 300 CVs in the group's database, with 42 women placed into jobs since the venture's inception Having worked in top executive positions at major corporations in Turkey for 15 years, Eylem Yal?n left the workforce to tend to and spend time with her newborn child. "When I was ready to go back to work, it was very clear what I wanted as much as what I did not," she said. What Yal?n wanted was project-based work in a more flexible structure, which was definitely not compatible with the corporate structures she was accustomed to working in.

Berra Biricik also pushed pause on a high-flying career in finance of 15 years due to health problems at home. After an absence of four years, Biricik wanted to bring back her experience and skills to a new model of working, one that was also project-based as opposed to grueling working hours. The similar setback came in a corporate world, rigid and conservative in its structure.

Turkey ranked 125th among 142 countries in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report, falling behind Tunisia, Qatar and Nigeria, and barely passing Saudi Arabia. "When women first enter the workforce in Turkey around age 24, the ratio of women in the workforce is around 37 percent," said Ay?e Güçlü Onur, a partner at the global executive search firm Egon Zehnder, based in Istanbul. "However, just after they start having children, say after the age of 25-26 and beyond, this ratio drops to 29 percent."

Güçlü Onur cited the primary reason for women not being included in the workforce as "attending to their children and other home related duties; this group accounts for more than 65 percent of all women not working." She...