Initiative

Equality at Work Platform (Women participation in the Turkish economy)

Summary of the initiative

The “Equality at Work Platform” was established during the World Economic Forum on Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia on 4-6 June 2012 in İstanbul headed by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies with co-presidency of the President of Sabancı Holding and Doğuş Holding.

The Platform is an initiative to ensure gender equality in the process of female participation in economy in Turkey. The initiative forces the participation of public and private sector, trade unions, NGOs and academia.

The Equality at Work Platform is established in order to coordinate and fulfil responsibilities towards reducing the gap between economic participation and opportunities, by 10% in three years as mentioned in the Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum in 2012. For this purpose “Gender Equality Declaration” was prepared and opened to signature of companies.

Also, in order to identify the employment status of women in Turkey, best practices guide policy development to increase female employment, “Survey on Women at Workplaces and Best Practices” was prepared by representatives from Boyner Holding, Coca-Cola İçecek, Doğuş Holding, Sabancı Holding, Turkcell HR and Ministry of Family and Social Policies and implemented in 55 pioneering companies of Turkey between 23 November and 3 December 2012.