Young Leader Women: Knowledge, Experience, and Solidarity Against Inequality

How can we change the social, political and economic power relations that lead to and reinforce gender-based inequalities as the leading role of women? How can young women, in particular, lead to the transformation of an egalitarian society? What if women’s experiences of pioneering and transformation were subject to intergenerational transmission? What can young women learn from each other and how can they cooperate? In order to answer these questions, MATRA Enhancing Women’s Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project was designed as a social contribution and a research project. The project aims at real equality in life; in order to achieve “equality of results”, it brought together different competences and skills in the light of academic knowledge and the experiences of professionals. The individual development and self-realization of the participating young women were undoubtedly one of the most important observations of the whole project process. However, the effects of making women effective, intergenerational and intergenerational solidarity, benefiting from different professional experiences and life observations were particularly tested to overcome the sexist patterns underlying inequalities. Interests, consciousness, and solidarity of young women, who came from different places of Turkey, different living environments, and different education and professional circles, strengthen the knowledge and emotion memory of KOÇ-KAM.

We owe all of this to the research, meticulousness, and dedication of Dr. Aslı Mert, the project’s chief coordinator. We would like to thank the pioneering women from all generations and fields who contributed to the project and congratulate the young women who participated…

Prof. Dr. Bertil Emrah Oder
Chairholder, Koç University UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Sustainable Development 
Director, The Center for Gender Studies at Koc University (KOÇ-KAM)  

Enhancing Women’s Leadership Trajectories via Female Role Models Project

At the end of the project, 82 young professional women with leadership targets from 10 different sectors completed their trainings on general and sectoral leadership in their fields of work, seminars they participated and the mentoring process provided by the leading names in their field. Training modules and seminars organized by the Project Coordinator between September 2018 and February 2019, sectoral meetings and following the six training-seminar days, which included roundtable discussion sessions, mentoring days took place in March, April, and May, including leading women in the leading role models in the field. Our sectors covered academia, architecture and sustainable women-friendly urbanization, health, arts, business and management, entrepreneurship, communication, retail and sustainable production (mainly agriculture), NGOs and social services, science and technology.

Today, even in contexts where women’s employment rates are relatively high, gender-based discrimination continues according to the field of study and the position worked. The fact that women can compete and participate equally with men in every job and position plays a key role not only in the welfare of individuals but also in the context of economic and social development of societies. The lack of sufficient women in leadership positions has a negative impact on a wide range of issues from women’s domestic division of labor to social status. The main objective of this project is to support the leader young women of the future, to contribute to the increase in the number of women in decision-making mechanisms, as well as to ensure the sustainability of the role models and mentoring cycle through the “Role Model Leader Women Network” and to improve the participation patterns of women in business life. is to take a step.

Dr. Aslı E. Mert
Project Coordinator

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