Female Employees Strengthen Companies' Potential

Women Employees Strengthen Company Potential Today is 5 December, World Women's Rights Day. Supporting women's participation in every field of business is an important measure of sensitivity to women's rights. Women's presence in working life now directly affects companies' reputation and their approaches focused on gender equality. Research shows that women employees strengthen company potential in every area. 88 years ago today, Turkish women were granted the right to vote and be elected. On 5 December 1934, amendments to the Constitution and Election Law enabled women to vote and stand as candidates. This revolution, led by Ulu Önder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, paved the way for women to have a stronger presence in social life and marked a historic step toward the modernization of Turkish society. In fact, this revolution in the cause of women's rights set an example for the world, and countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria granted this right to their female citizens years after the Turkish Republic. While 5 December, celebrated as Women's Rights Day, has its roots in Olympe de Gouges's 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [Female] Citizen, in Turkey it became a far more meaningful day for women when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk granted women "the right to vote and be elected" on 5 December 1934. On this important day, which has opened the way for women's participation in the labor force and removed obstacles to our discussion of gender equality today, we will shed light on the proportions of women in working life. Because supporting women's participation in every field of the business world is an important measure of sensitivity to women's rights. Women's presence in working life now directly affects companies' reputation and their approaches focused on gender equality. Research shows that women employees strengthen company potential in every area.

Female manager proportion reached 19.3%

According to TÜİK's Women in Statistics 2021 report, the proportion of women working in managerial positions stands at only 19.3%. This figure was 14.4% in 2012. In 10 years, the proportion of women in managerial positions increased by only 4.9 percentage points.

Women's employment rate is less than half that of men

According to the results of TÜİK's 2021 household labor force survey; in 2020, the employment rate of those aged 15 and above in Turkey was 42.8%. This rate was 26.3% for women and 59.8% for men. The highest employment rate in 2020 was 50.9% in Tekirdağ, Edirne and Kırklareli provinces. The lowest employment rate was 26.0% in Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt region. The highest female employment rate was 34.7% in Trabzon, Ordu, Giresun, Rize, Artvin and Gümüşhane region, while the highest male employment rate was 67.9% in Tekirdağ, Edirne and Kırklareli region. The lowest employment rate was 12.6% for women and 40.4% for men in Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt provinces. The proportion of part-time workers in employment was 12.4% overall in 2020, 19.5% for women and 9.3% for men.

Labor force participation rate of higher education graduate women is 65.6%

When examining labor force participation rates by education level; in 2020, it was observed that as women's education level increased, their participation in the labor force increased more. The labor force participation rate of illiterate women was 12.4%, for women with less than high school education 24.1%, for high school graduates 29.9%, for vocational or technical high school graduates 37.0%, and for higher education graduates 65.6%.

Women in Working Life

• Global labor force participation rate is 63% for women and 94% for men. • Only 26% of artificial intelligence and data analytics professionals worldwide are women. • 6.6% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. • The proportion of female parliamentarians worldwide was 24.9% in 2020. • 21% of film producers worldwide are women.