23/03/2018
Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum Women's Empowerment Projects Manager Sevda Alkan was a speaker in the "Increasing the Number of Women at the Top" session in the Women's Power Conference held by the Hürriyet newspaper on March 5, 2018.
Sevda Alkan discussed the work of the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum on improving women's presence in management and decision-making processes. Alkan shared data from the "Woman Directors in Turkey 2017" report, stating that the percentage of woman directors in Turkey was still behind Europe and North America. Alkan said that women accounted for only 13.9% of all board of directors members in Turkey, continuing, "This is low compared to Europe. What is more, only 7% of directors are women who are not family members, or in other words, have been able to break the glass ceiling. We have compiled a database for companies that have no woman directors and claim that they cannot find any suitable candidates. We keep lists of women who possess the competencies to be excellent directors and leaders. Currently, there are 282 candidates in the database."
Sevda Alkan also explained that their ambition was to increase the ratio of women on boards on the main list and emerging companies index of the Istanbul Stock Exchange to 30% by 2023, and ensure that no company on the BIST 100 index has an all-male board.
