Women Friend Certificate: A Project Aiming to Increase Women Employment in Turkey
A project aiming to increase women employment and entrepreneurship in Turkey, conducted by a women association and supported by the World Bank, will offer 500 Turkish companies training and assistance on how to become ‘women friendly’. All participating firms will be given certificates at the end of the program
Only one in four women able to work are employed in Turkey and KAGİDER aims to increase this ratio by trainning firms on how to eliminate gender gaps among employees. “This will help boost women entrepreneurship,” KaGİDER’s chair Türktan says.Women-friendly Turkish companies will receive “gender equality” certificates from a women’s association in the framework of a project with the World Bank that aims to boost employment and entrepreneurship among women.
The Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, or KAGİDER, has developed a new employment model with seven criteria to encourage some 500 Turkish companies to employ more women.
“The research we have conducted worldwide shows being part of working life is key to increasing women’s entrepreneurship. A woman who stays home is not likely to say ‘I will become an entrepreneur,’” said KAGİDER Chairwoman Gülden Türktan.
Türktan said the group had analyzed World Bank projects aiming to boost women’s participation in the labor market in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Paraguay.
Training and assistance offered to firms
“We noticed training programs were implemented in all successful projects…. We expanded this a bit further, offering not only training, but the assistance of auditing firms to develop the necessary procedures to enhance women’s employment,” she said.
The firms that will participate in the project’s first stage will be voluntarily audited for three months by PricewatershouseCoopers and Ernst&Young to determine the companies’ stances on women’s employment. The auditing firms will ask participating companies seven main questions regarding their vision on gender equality, and will then draft programs for them to boost female employment. Participating firms will also be awarded a “Women’s Friend” certificate.
“Two groups of companies will go through this stage each year. Moreover, we will establish a database with information on successful firms,” Türktan said, adding that other auditing companies were also welcomed to participate in the project.
KAGİDER aims to reach to 25 to 30 companies in the first stage, include 100 firms in the project each year and train a total of 500 companies, the chairwoman said: “The World Bank is also following each step we take. We might export the model in five years.”
Of 26 million women above the age of 15 in Turkey, only 6.5 million are working. Should this participation rate of 24 percent increase by 4 percentage points, poverty in Turkey will diminish by 15 percent, according to Türktan.
A similar project in Mexico, where 177 firms participated, has improved the working environment by 31 percent, she said.
Leading Turkish companies such as Hürriyet, Eczacıbaşı, Coca-Cola, Garanti Bank, IBM, Boyner Holding, Novartis and Sanofi are among the main sponsors of the KAGİDER project.
July 17, 2011
SOURCE: Anatolia News Agency
