IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu issued a press statement on the occasion of 8 March, International Working Women's Day. While stating that participation and the role of women in social life, economy and politics needed to increase, IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu recalled March 8 International Women's Day as an opportunity to review women's status and potential in the world and in Turkey. IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu said:

“Women Perform Better Than Men in Cross Skills Required in the 21^st Century”

 “I celebrate 8 March International Women's Day. This day offers us an opportunity to revise the world's situation, reminds us of problems and to address what can be done to improve the situation of women in Turkey and the world. Ensuring gender equality, equality of women in every field with men, and equal representation in all areas from business to politics should be one of the primary policy priorities. When we look at women's employment rate , while the global average stands at 47% and the EU is catching up with 67%, Turkey’s average stands at 34%.

The participation of women in the economy as both entrepreneurs and employees will increase productivity and create dynamism in the economy. In the 21^st century, business life and the labour market are also changing rapidly. While the service economy comes to the forefront, from industry to agriculture the use of artificial intelligence accelerates in all the sectors. While the traditional manual works are increasingly replaced by automation, we see that skills such as social cohesion, communication, teamwork, problem solving, which are called cross skills, gain significance in business life. Research shows that women are ahead of men in these type of skills. When we look at the reasons for the decrease in employment of women, social and cultural prejudices and the difficulties faced in balancing household and professional work life come first. Even though some women do not have professional work, they are involved with multiple unpaid jobs such as household work, childcare and care for the elderly; therefore, they actually produce great value. In the EU, 75% of this household work, which is an unpaid job, is done by women; this percentage is much higher in Turkey. Speaking about the gender wage gap, it is calculated at 12.9% in Turkey and under 16% in the EU, according to ILO data."

Chairman Zeytinoğlu stated that violence against women continues to be an important problem. He continued as follows:

 “Violence against women continues to be an open wound. When we look at the data published by the EU, it is seen that 33% of women face physical or sexual violence. We are seeing increased cases of violence against women in Turkey, especially in recent years. The Istanbul Convention, which was opened for signature in 2011, is the first international document to be legally binding on the prevention and fight against all sort of violence. Turkey is one of the first signatories to the Convention. Our main goal should be to prevent gender-based violence, increase women's employment in professional life, and ensure equal participation of women in decision-making mechanisms and politics, in order to improve the situation and the equality of women in all these areas. ”