IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu reacted to the 8^th March International Women’s Day and highlighted the critical importance of gender equality in Turkey’s EU accession process and in further advancing in women’s rights.

Zeytinoğlu pursued his words as follows: “I would like to hereby celebrate the International Women’s Day and hope that in the world and in Turkey, gender equality will be further advanced, issues such as violence against women, poverty and discrimination will be solved in the future. According to the Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum in 2016, Turkey ranks as 130^th among 144 countries with respect to gender equality. Furthermore, it is revealed that among 25 of the most advanced countries in the world regarding gender equality, 13 are EU Member States”.

As such, and by giving some figures on gender equality in both the EU and Turkey, Zeytinoğlu underscored that there is still a long path for Turkey in order to increase women’s representation in politics and the economy.

Women’s employment rate

EU: 62.3%

Turkey: 33.1%

Gender representation on corporate board of directors

EU: 22.7%

Turkey: 14.2%

Rate of women executives

EU: 23%

Turkey: 12%

Proportion of seats held by women in parliaments

EU: 28.5%

Turkey: 14.5%

Proportion of seats held by women in governments

EU: 27.4%

Turkey: 3.7%