IKV organised a webinar titled “Gender Equality in Türkiye and the EU” on 11 March 2025.

The webinar was moderated by IKV Deputy Secretary General M. Gökhan Kilit, who firstly introduce the speakers and then gave the floor to them.

Associate Professor Çiğdem Nas, the Secretary General of IKV, was the first speaker of the webinar. Assoc. Prof. Nas made a presentation named “Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Feminist Foreign Policy”. Stating that security is a hot topic with the issues of Ukraine and Gaza, Assoc. Prof. Nas said that women's experiences during conflicts and post-conflict recovery periods differ from men's and that is a subject that should be raised awareness.  Assoc. Prof. Nas underlined the importance of examining the processes of displacement, migration and impoverishment as women's experiences and then stated that the number of women in high-level decision-making processes is still low even though women are more present in diplomacy and academia compared to the past. Assoc. Prof. Nas gave information about the UN Women, Peace and Security Agenda and emphasized the concept of feminist foreign policy before concluding her speech by giving examples of current foreign policy practices related to this concept.

Bahçeşehir University Faculty Member and Jean Monnet Chair Associate Professor Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm was the second speaker of the webinar. Assoc. Prof. Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm began her speech by defining the concept of epistemic justice and focused on the issue of feminist epistemic justice in Türkiye and the EU. Stating that there are two types of epistemic injustice, which are testimonial injustice and hermeneutical injustice, Assoc. Prof. Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm evaluated the importance of feminist epistemic justice in the EU context. After emphasizing that the EU is in contradiction in terms of gender equality, the EU's claim to be a normative power on the issue was discussed by Assoc. Prof. Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm gives examples from the academic literature in which gender issue is mostly addressed with mechanisms of influence.

The third speaker of the webinar, TED University Faculty Member Dr. Burcu Özdemir-Sarıgil, began her speech by sharing statistical data on the rates of women being harassed at work in the EU to be followed up by data on women subjected to violence in Türkiye. While Dr. Özdemir-Sarıgil stated that the rate of women experienceing violence in the EU is 30% on average according to 2024 data, she added this rate is particularly high in northern countries. Dr. Özdemir-Sarıgil also stated that as the level of education of women in Türkiye increases, the rate of being victims of violence decreases. Concluding her speech with a general assessment, Dr. Özdemir-Sarıgil stated that social violence was not taken seriously and was not included in the policy agenda both in Europe and Türkiye until the 1980s and that an institutionalisation within the scope of combating violence was seen more since the 2000s, and that the EU generally did not make violence against women a very important agenda item in negotiation processes.

The last speaker of the webinar, IKV Junior Researcher Deniz Bal, addressed the 2024 Türkiye Report by the European Commission from a gender equality perspective. Touching upon information in the report such as the fact that a gender-sensitive planning and budgeting policy has not yet been established, that the representation of women in senior positions in public administration remains low, and that the rate of female employees in the public sector is measured at only 35%, Bal emphasised that the laws against hate crimes are not compatible with the EU legislation. Bal also stated that the report reveals gender gaps and income inequalities continuing to persist in the labour market and that child labour continues to be observed in all age and gender groups as it is another important area where gender inequality is observed. Bal concluded her speech by addressing issues such as strengthening legal legislation, combating all kinds of discrimination, protecting minorities, and increasing the employment of women and youth, which are included in the recommendations section of the report.

The webinar ended after the Q&A section.