Borusan Implements “Gender Lens” Program

In scope of March 8th, International Women’s Day, Borusan senior management introduced Gender Lens program at Borusan Music House and signed 
Equal Borusan Contract. 
 
Supporting gender equality, Borusan organized a special meeting in scope of March 8th, International Women’s Day. Zeynep Hamedi, Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation President; Erkan Kafadar, Borusan Holding CEO; general managers of Borusan companies, non-governmental organizations’ representatives and press members attended the event organized at Borusan Music House. “Equal Borusan Contract” was signed in scope of the launch and Gender Lens program was introduced as a program that identifies concrete steps and objectives in this area.

Gender Lens program provides a road map for gender equality in Borusan

The event opened with a short introductory film about what Borusan has done in terms of gender equality up to date and ended with a mini concert. Nursel Ölmez Ateş, Borusan Holding HR and Corporate Communications Group President, took the floor in the meeting and gave information about Gender Lens program. Ölmez Ateş said,

“In this program, we scrutinize invisible barriers that lead to gender inequality in business life and we make up a prescription in order to resolve this issue. With the Gender Lens program, we went beyond creating awareness and we identified concrete steps and objectives to realize gender equality in Borusan. We set serious goals to increase the numbers of woman employees and woman leaders in our core. We take concrete steps in order to provide better working conditions for all our employees, including many applications such as parental leave, flexible working conditions and dissemination of day care benefits. Gender Lens program is a clear indication of the cultural and mental transformation.”

“Turkey’s future depends on the progress we will make in this area as a country and a society”

Erkan Kafadar, Borusan Holding CEO, reminded that enabling gender equality is one of the main responsibilities of Borusan and said:
“Turkey’s sustainable development, prosperity and joining the ranks of developed countries in terms of living standards depend on its ability to ensure gender equality. At Borusan, we know that this is a long-distance run and it will take time. But we are committed to march forward on this road and to make equality dominant in our group. We opened a new page today in our journey and we demonstrated our determination once again with all our Group Companies’ General Managers. We are all proud of Borusan being the leading and role model organization in our business world in this context.” 

Strong support for business life with Gender Lens!

Goals of the Gender Lens program include reaching 30 percent women in senior management and 40 percent women in middle management levels in all companies within three years, having at least one woman candidate in recruitment and promotion processes for senior and middle management levels and encouraging 50 percent women ratio in Leadership Faculty. For the period of 2020 – 2023, goals were set for 40 percent women recruitment for office employees and 15 percent women recruitment for factory, field and workshop employees.

Gender Lens program also provides extensive solutions to facilitate working life. Special health insurance with secured birth for women and men employees, ability to use birth and maternity leaves for a continuous period of 5.5 months for women, support program for birth and post-birth period, dissemination of day care benefit, leaves for the first day of school and report card day, flexible work applications, face-to-face sharing meetings with women employees are among these solutions.