Opening bell at Borsa Istanbul rings for gender equality
On International Women’s Day, UN Women, UN Global Compact, IFC and Borsa Istanbul (former Istanbul Stock Exchange) came together to organize an opening bell ceremony to highlight the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment to sustainable development and business.Date:
In celebration of International Women’s Day, the opening bell at Borsa Istanbul (former Istanbul Stock Exchange) rang for gender equality. The aim of the event that brought together the government, the private sector and the civil society in Turkey was to bring further attention to the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment for inclusive economic growth and development as well as highlight the role of the private sector.
The First Lady of Turkey, Ms. Emine Erdogan and the Minister of Family and Social Policies, Dr. Sema Ramazanoğlu joined the bell ringing ceremony where 33 new companies that signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) were announced. The total number of WEPs signatories in Turkey has increased to 83 now making it the 4th country in the world with the highest number of WEPs signatories.
WEPs is a joint initiative of UN Women and UN Global Compact that offer guidance to businesses on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. To date over 1,100 CEOs from around the world have signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs, publicly committing to leadership on gender equality and implementing the 7 WEPs Principles.
First Lady Emine Erdoğan congratulated the companies that have signed the WEPs. “Principles such as having more women on company boards and fair treatment of men and women in the business world herald a better world,” said Ms. Erdoğan.
Minister of Family and Social Policies Dr. Sema Ramazanoğlu emphasized that societies that fail to offer equal opportunities to women cannot develop and added “I hope for a world where all kinds of discrimination have ended, and where women have a place in the economic and cultural life.”
This year, during the first week of March, 34 Stock Exchanges around the world join the UN Global Compact, Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSE), UN Women, International Finance Cooperation (IFC), The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and Women in ETFs, in raising awareness about the importance of gender equality to sustainable development and business by their ringing the opening or closing bell.
“This year on International Women’s Day, the UN is calling for a “Planet 50-50: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. This is an urgent call to all humanity to say no to discrimination and violence against women, say no to gender inequality,” said Ingibjorg Gisladottir, UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Representative to Turkey.
A founding member of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSE), Borsa İstanbul hosted the bell-ringing ceremony for the second time this year.
Borsa İstanbul Chairman Dr. Talat Ulussever, IFC Turkey Country Manager Aisha Williams, Koç Holding CEO Levent Çakıroğlu and SUTEKS Group Chairwoman and WEPs Business Advocate Nur Ger also delivered speeches at the ceremony.
The new signatories include AccorHotels Türkiye, AYGAZ, Borsa İstanbul, ÇİMSA, Danone Hayat İçecek ve Gıda, Danone Nutricia Anne Bebek Beslenmesi, Deloitte Türkiye, Doğuş Grubu, Emek Hukuk Bürosu, Enve Enerji, Erkunt Sanayi A.Ş., Erkunt Traktör, EY Türkiye, Garanti Emeklilik, İnci Holding, ING Bank Turkey, Ka Mühendislik, Kapital Medya Hizmetleri A.Ş., LAV, Multinet Teknoloji A.Ş., Multinet Up, MV Holding, NURUS, Orka Holding, Penti, Rönesans Holding, SAP Türkiye, Şekerbank, Spring Nearest Manufacturing Company, Unilever Türkiye, Ünlü & Co, Vodafone Türkiye and Zenium Technology.