The First Female Mukthar: Gül Esin

At the time, in the village of Demircidere, part of Karpuzlu in Aydın, elections were held with the participation of all men and women eligible to vote. Nearly 500 villagers gathered in the village association at the republic square to cast their votes. Among eight candidates for the position of mukthar, Gül Esin was the sole female contender. While her election symbolized the revolutionary image of women, other factors contributed significantly to her success. She was deeply respected and admired by the villagers and was literate in an era when even most men struggled with basic reading and writing skills. This example was a historic milestone, demonstrating that women could take on leading roles not only in politics but also in local governance, proving that leadership transcends gender.

Even today, this step, which paved the way for women to represent the people as mayors, village heads, parliamentarians, ministers, and even prime ministers, continues to fill us with pride 90 years later. It also imposes a responsibility on us to act in the spirit of this great vision. Gül Esin was, of course, just one example of her time. Countless other women have taken brave steps in various fields to ensure that women secure their rightful place in society. We must remember that December 5, 1934, is not merely a date; it remains a source of inspiration for building a more equitable future and reminds us of an ongoing struggle.

Inspiration for the Future

As we commemorate December 5, 1934, I am not merely celebrating the success of a decision made long ago. I am also reflecting on our responsibilities for today and the future. The philosophy behind this reform went beyond addressing the needs of its time—it offered all of us a vision for the future. I believe that ensuring women take their rightful place in society, politics, and every field is not just about empowering half of a society but about advancing the entire society. Doesn’t Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s statement, “A society that keeps its women behind is doomed to remain behind,” still light our way today?

From my perspective, the courageous step taken on December 5, 1934, continues to serve as an inspiration not just for Türkiye but for the shared history of the world. For instance, Italy and France took this step only in 1944, a full decade after Türkiye, and Switzerland, from which we adopted our civil code, granted women the same right only in 1971, 37 years after Atatürk’s decision. This is a tangible testament to the visionary nature of Atatürk’s reforms. To understand and uphold this vision is not only a tribute to the past but also a responsibility that reinforces my belief in a more equal and modern future. Today, by following the path paved by this bold step, let us become guiding examples for future generations and work together to build a brighter future.

The number of women who achieve unique accomplishments is as low as it seems, neither in the world of innovation nor in the business world. Although we still have a long way to go until we fully establish gender equality, there are many women who develop important ideas and projects that our world needs and improve life through their unique perspectives. And fortunately, the number of such women is increasing.

The problem here is that the success of women leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators is not sufficiently recognized and expressed. We do not know who they are because the necessary change in this regard has not yet taken place in male-dominated sectors and platforms. Today, we still hear only male voices in many platforms and meetings. However, this is not because women in those platforms or meetings have nothing to say but because they are often not included in them.

I recently read an article titled “Where are all the women innovators? Here’s a start”* on the website of McKinsey. On the purpose of pointing out this matter, the article takes as a starting point the question of why women are underrepresented or not represented at all on “the most” lists of the business world, such as “The 100 Most Innovative Leaders.” When the online research conducted by the authors to create a list of today’s female innovators brought forth more women who made a difference in the past than today, they decided to initiate their own survey to find them. Through this survey, they started compiling a list that introduces female innovators from many different cultures, areas of expertise, lines of business, and impressive works. Some of the female innovators who are included in this highly diverse list have already made significant contributions to the business world, while some others need to wait for their innovations and contributions to be understood and recognized, and it is stated that the remaining ones who wish to make a big social change impact will need to wait through a somewhat lengthier process.

I am thoroughly bothered by observing male-female inequality. We have to put an end to this injustice. It is already time. Male-female equality and diversity make life richer and add value to it. Such efforts should not be seen as mere social responsibility projects; they constitute one of the primary conditions of building a better world for all of us. No platform or place that lacks diversity or where women are not included under equal terms as men can be considered good, useful, or successful enough. We should not remain silent in platforms that do not exercise due diligence to this matter or reflect male-female equality and diversity. This is why I prefer to be part of platforms that are aware of the importance of diversity and male-female balance. Because I believe that what is discussed in these meetings and platforms is genuinely meaningful only when an environment of equality and diversity is present.

*Laura Furstenthal, Katie Lelarge, Tiffany Qiang, and Mateusz Trzaska, “Where are all the women innovators? Here’s a start”, McKinsey, https://mck.co/3wiBDl3 (05.19.2021)

Today is March 8 International Women’s Day. When we take a look at the history of this day, we see that it has been celebrated in many countries on March 8, since the early 1900s. Despite the fact that it has been more than a century, it is saddening to see that our awareness, sensitivity and “good wishes” towards strengthening of women’s social position have not been sufficient to enable genuine progress in this area. We need more commitments and action plans to strengthen and encourage diversity. These could be personal, social, or corporate commitments.

In my blog article for last year’s International Women’s Day, I mentioned that today, women’s role in the society is more complex and profound. I also highlighted the importance of hitching our horses together in the responsibilities fulfilled successfully by women despite the immense pressure they are faced with, rather than only appreciating their efforts: https://gelis.org/en/2020/03/09/diversity-is-our-greatest-strength-happy-international-womens-day/

Men and women are innately and naturally equal. However, we are still far away from establishing this equality in the world we live in. It is up to us to advance women’s social position and to value their capabilities and ideas. It is of great importance that we make both internal and external promises to do so and keep them. My personal commitment is to carry my role as an ambassador for strengthening women’s position both within and outside of our company to a whole new level -and not just once a year. From this day on, I will make a point of listening to the ideas and perspectives of our female colleagues that will create value and make a difference for all of us in all critical executive meetings and do my best to make sure they are implemented.

Happy March 8 International Women’s Day!

However, I would like to discuss another aspect of the issue today. In this era, women’s social roles are a lot more complex and heavier than before. In addition to becoming a mother, most women are also expected to continue their careers and business responsibilities exactly as they used to do before having a child. I must admit that this is a huge pressure to bear. I sincerely congratulate women who manage to create a balance between these responsibilities despite all the heavy burden.

Yet, apart from appreciation, what do we really do to share these responsibilities, to ease the burden that is suddenly placed onto women? With such a sudden change in daily routine, women may think they need to choose between motherhood and career, thus start asking the question: “Should I drop one out?”

That is why, in addition to thanking women for the value they generate and for their creative efforts, we also need to discuss whether we understand their responsibilities, priorities and the pressure, and what steps we can take to reduce this pressure. Plus, instead of limiting this discussion to a certain period, we need to build a sustainable corporate framework and act on it to ensure progress.

At Siemens, we advocate providing more opportunities for female employees to be able to truly talk about equality. We not only fully support the legal rights of maternity, but also provide the best support we can through some special practices. Since “back to work” period can be difficult, we hold adaptation and parenting trainings to support new mothers. These trainings are not limited to the first months of parenting, they continue in the following years with different scopes. With the kindergarten support for pre-school period, we pay attention to sharing the financial and mental burden of mothers. And we implement those in line with our diversity principles and understanding.

Diversity is not a new concept or movement to us. It has always been one of the fundamental values of our corporate culture. We believe that diverse perspectives, mindsets and cultural values are keys to equality, development and success. That is why we organize gender equality and diversity trainings for all employees, both men and women.

Witnessing many global and regional problems today, I believe that we need to benefit from women’s distinctive perspective and evaluation of incidents and problems. Imagining, designing policies and acting together, women and men can offer solutions that are a lot more efficient and workable than the ones we currently have. Thus, we can build a more peaceful and optimistic future together. We unfortunately observe that men are immensely responsible for social violence of every level (from wars to domestic violence) and many other sorts of disagreements. That is why we gravely and urgently need constructive cooperation between women and men.

Today is March 8^th, International Women’s Day… On this important day, we need to talk about the struggle of all people who defend not only women’s rights, but human rights as a whole, with a strong stand against inequality. I truly wish the 8^thof March were a day celebrated all around the world with a ripple of joy. Nevertheless, I believe it is an important development that recently the world has been keeping the topics of equal opportunity and gender equality on the agenda. Believing that my hopes will raise even more in time, I sincerely celebrate all women’s International Women’s Day.

One of the reasons for being hopeful is the initiatives I’ve seen especially on the social media. For instance, “The future is female” has become one of the most popular mottos lately. This motto often appears in the social media, and fashion and music industries. Some criticize the motto for allegedly being against equality. However, the injustice faced by women almost throughout the world shows that equal opportunity must be strongly supported.

Today, women are obliged to assume very important roles and responsibilities simultaneously in both social and business life. In addition, they need to deal with social obstacles, judgments and taboos, and this not fair at all. Equality, firstly, is a natural right. That’s why I insist on improving diversity and equal opportunity in our company since the first day I started working at Siemens Turkey. At this point, I would like to tell you the story of Javed Mulani’s “Diversity” painting at our Gebze campus.

It is said that, one day in 1961, poet Nazım Hikmet and artist Abidin Dino watch the River Seine in Paris through the window of their hotel room while performing their arts. Nazım Hikmet then takes a look at the painting Abidin Dino is working on and in admiration of his art, Nazım writes the lines: “Could you paint the picture of happiness, Abidin? / But without taking the easy way out…”

I first met Mulani during my years as Siemens India CFO in the 2000s. After I started working at Siemens Turkey, I invited him to Istanbul and, inspired by Nazım Hikmet’s question to Abidin Dino, I asked him if he could “paint the picture of diversity” for us.

Thus, he created this painting that glorifies “the diversity” with each color, each contour, each detail. Whenever I look at this painting, I am impressed by the main figure with ten hands and a different responsibility in each of them. Such power, such resilience, such determination! Mulani once said “I personally see women as the central force of today and the future,” while talking about this figure. I totally agree with him. I think we need women’s problem-solving ability, strength and determination especially in the business world. There are a lot of data supporting my opinion, but I will write about them in another blog post.

Let’s go back to “The future is female” motto. Yes, we have lived in a male-dominant system so far and the result is not much of a relief globally. Isn’t it time to co-build a future in which women and men have equal rights, not only legally, but also actually? Isn’t it time that women shape the future as freely as men do?

Announced as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the United Nations, 3 December is a very important day to all of us. Aiming to attract attention to the difficulties that the disabled individuals face and to develop solutions for the elimination of such difficulties, 3 December once again reminds us that we should all act together to support this cause.

Disabled individuals face common difficulties both in our country and in the world, the most important of which is employment. Employment is first and most of all a human right. The right to employment is important to all individuals and should be emphasized especially as it plays a critical role in integrating the disabled into the society. There is another dimension to the problem: To reach its sustainable development goals, our country needs not only investments in production or exports, but also a people-oriented approach. We should first invest in people for sustainable development and a life without barriers. The business world as a whole has a responsibility in achieving this goal.

Employment of the disabled is very significant not only for the disabled individuals and national sustainability goals, but also for companies. Diversity is one of the major values that reinforce a company. As Siemens, we adopt diversity as a fundamental principle and believe that companies can prosper by benefiting from different perspectives provided by diversity. Within the scope of this approach, we implement positive discrimination for the disabled individuals. Adoption of a similar approach can contribute greatly to the employment of the disabled in Turkey. However, there is still a long way to go. According to the report by the General Directorate of Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly of the Ministry of Family, Labor, Social Services, “Number of Disabled Individuals Required to Be Employed” was 15,241 in the public sector and 106,481 in the private sector as of May 2018. Yet “Number of Working Disabled Individuals” was 12,515 and 98,948, respectively. These data clearly reveal that the private sector still has room for the disabled. There can be many reasons for that, including lack of appropriate positions or lack of a qualified workforce of the disabled to meet the requirements. However, as the business world, we can change this and close the gap especially by training a qualified workforce of the disabled through training programs.

That is why we have recently launched the Digital Bootcamp at Siemens Turkey. With this camp, we combine our company’s focuses on contribution to the society, diversity, and digitalization. With this project designed specifically for university graduates with disabilities, participants will be given digitalization and software trainings for 3 months and receive “Siemens Digital Certification” following the testing. Then, in order to obtain professional experience in their areas of expertise, they will be employed for various positions at Siemens Turkey. I believe that the project, the first term of which started on 26 November, will train young disabled people who are competent in the new digital world and contribute to the employment of the disabled in our country.

I hope the number of such initiatives as Siemens Digital Bootcamp increases to ensure significant gains for both the disabled and the business world. Let us never forget that the problems experienced by the disabled are not their problems only, but also those of the whole business world. Wishing to solve these in unity…

Today is March 8th, International Women’s Day.

After taking a look at last year’s blog post on International Women’s Day, I regret to see that the major problems I mentioned a year ago still continue, even in an augmented manner. Although society’s awareness on “violence against women” is increasing, we still have a long way to go. Today, half of our 70-million population are women. Naturally, it is impossible for a society to improve by developing only one half and neglecting the other. Especially if the neglected half is the most important actor in raising the children, i.e. our future, such improvement becomes even harder. Therefore, we need to take steps that truly create value and benefit. And we need to do it not only as individuals, but also as corporations.

Sustainability is a key component that makes Siemens what it is. We attach great importance to benefiting from innovative ideas created through diverse cultures and mindsets in all of our corporate principles and operations. Today, in parallel with the extraordinary increase in the means of communication, we are facing more severe problems that need to be solved. One of the problems to be solved is finding ways to expand and reinforce women representation in the business world. We, as Siemens Turkey, are proud to have an active “Diversity Council” that shares the same goal. We have also been one of the first companies to sign the “Business Against Domestic Violence Policy Development and Implementation Guide” in Turkey. But is that enough? Of course not. We pay attention to every initiative in this regard and we will continue our efforts to create a difference.

On this year’s March 8th we wanted to make an announcement that is really meaningful to us. As a technology and engineering company, we attach great importance to increasing the number of female engineers. Therefore, we are launching a scholarship program with Turkish Education Foundation (TEV), with whom we have cooperated in various projects so far. Within the scope of this program, we make donations to meet year-long educational expenses of young women studying engineering to get a BSc or MSc degree. Success should be supported and we are determined to contribute to increasing the number of successful female engineers.

International Women’s Day is a celebration of women’s labor, freedom, and the value they generate for life itself. We are more than happy to celebrate this day with an announcement that focuses on social contribution. Happy International Women’s Day!

“We believe that it’s every child’s right to access preschool education” says Nalan Yalçın, General Manager of AÇEV, Mother Child Education Foundation.

AÇEV piloted an intensive pre-school program to provide critical early childhood education for Syrian refugee children in last summer. We as Siemens Turkey are proud to support such a valuable project of AÇEV. Following the program, an extensive monitoring and evaluation was conducted and the results revealed that kids benefited from this program showed a remarkable improvement which proved it ‘successful’. Some of this children have never seen their parents home back in Syria. Now they are even more ready for their ordinary school education.

This has been a valuable example to develop further education programs for refugee children. This video talks for itself!

Acknowledged around the world under the leadership of the United Nations, December 3^rd International Day for Persons with Disabilities is an opportunity to increase public awareness on the issue.

In addition to government authorities and NGOs, it is also our duty to make sure that the disabled participate in life, contribute to the society, and benefit from the principle of equal opportunity. As Siemens Turkey, within the scope of our sustainability approach, we believe that we should focus on this issue not only today, but always. We would like to underline that we will continue paying due attention to this and other similar social issues.

On the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, I wish us all a world without hindrances.

The week of May 10-16 is acknowledged as Disabled People Week around the world. I believe that this week is an important opportunity to work on awareness-raising practices. Our responsibility as a company that adopts diversity as one of its most important values should be to extend this awareness throughout our lives and continue to undertake individual and institutional efforts to make sure that people with disabilities are included in every aspect of life. One of our successful initiatives in this regard is “The Wind and The Fisherman” book, prepared with the contribution of our Wind Power and Renewables Department. The online version of this book is prepared for visually and hearing-impaired individuals and thus continues to reach many children in Turkey and raise awareness. (You can reach the online version of “The Wind and the Fisherman” at: http://www.ruzgarvebalikci.com/en/)

According to the UN data, there are about 500 million disabled people globally. The Turkish Statistical Institute states that 12.29% of the population have disabilities. Congenital or acquired disabilities certainly affect the lives of individuals, but it is our responsibility to encourage those individuals to participate in social life. I wholeheartedly believe that every individual can make a difference with his/her owned skills and these differences add value to both individuals and societies in the form of new solutions and new perspectives.

Therefore, I would like to remind everyone once again of our responsibility and I would like to thank all of our disabled colleagues at Siemens for their valuable contributions to our company.