MUPA President Tansu Özcan writes... Purple Showcase: What do the hands that hand out carnations sign their names to for the rest of the year?

(MUPA President Tansu Özcan)

Today is that day.

The day when institutions talk about women the most.

And most of the time, the day when women are heard the least:

March 8th

Since today is our day, let us show the courage to face each other and talk.

Those who hand out carnations should not take offense for the sake of the carnation. As you know, we can already be considered 'sensitive' for 364 days.

March 8th: the day when purple banners are hung in corridors across the world and, of course, in our country, when "women's power" videos appear on screens, and the most carefully planned ritual of corporate calendars takes the stage.

For one day, everyone is on the side of women.

For one day, everyone talks about equality.

For one day, everyone speaks the same language.

But precisely for this reason, today we must ask this question more than any other:

Where were you for the rest of the year?

Because we are not seeing this scene for the first time.

We recognize the purple logos, the well-lit panels, the carefully chosen sentences, and the carnations handed out at the door.

There is something else we are familiar with: the silence behind that showcase.

Today, we can speak more openly about its name: purple washing.

That is, treating women's demand for equality not as a matter of justice, but as an opportunity for image management.

That is, leaving the hierarchies, glass ceilings, humiliations, mobbing, and devaluation that remain unchanged for 364 days of the year exactly where they are, and borrowing a purple language for just one day.

That is, changing the message without changing the structure.

The problem starts right here.

Because the inequality women face in working life is often established not through grand statements, but through small mechanisms.

When you object, you are considered oversensitive.

When you set boundaries, you become a difficult woman.

When you demonstrate competence, they try to convince you that it is an exception, not a success.

When you rise, your labor is not discussed; a 'hidden agenda' is inevitably sought.

Unfortunately, in every corner of the world, a woman is often read first by her gender, not by the work she does.

That is the whole issue.

As long as a woman is seen not as a professional, but as a figure outside the norm, the internal order remains the same, no matter how brilliant the sentences about equality may be.

It is no coincidence that while a man who says the same sentence in a meeting room is attributed with 'leadership,' a woman is labeled as 'harsh'.

It is no coincidence that a woman who defends her rights is labeled as 'incompatible'.

It is no coincidence that the person who voices a complaint is turned into the complaint itself.

This is not just a matter of language.

This is a moral and political choice regarding whom institutions find acceptable and whom they find troublesome.

And then March 8th arrives.

Those who ignore harassment in companies, those who belittle inequality, those who use women's labor like a natural resource

and those who portray those who speak up as the problem; they hand out carnations on the same day.

A photo opportunity is created.

A speech is being made.

A video is being released.

For a while, everyone acts as if everything has been fixed.

Yet the truth begins right here:

An institution's sincerity regarding women is not hidden in its March 8th message, but in the decisions it makes for the rest of the year.

It is hidden in the invisible barriers that appear before women when it is time for promotions.

It is hidden in offering lower wages to a woman doing the same job.

It is hidden in how easily a woman's words are interrupted in a meeting.

In the preference for keeping female employees in 'calmer' and 'more supportive' roles.

It is seen in the behaviors that institutions pat on the back.

March 8 was not born as a display of elegance.

It was not born as a day for gestures either.

It was born from a history where women refused to remain invisible, defined their labor and their lives, and legitimized their dissent.

That is why Today is more fitting for remembrance than celebration.

More fitting for truth than courtesy.

More fitting for confrontation than a display window.

Our objection is precisely to this:

To the sincerity of a display window brought onto the stage once a year.

To the use of flowers to cover up injustice.

To equality being circulated not as a right, but as corporate communication material.

Carnations wither within a few days.

Purple logos return to their original colors.

Campaigns come to an end.

But the burden placed on women's shoulders, the silenced objections, and the diminished labor remain.

That is why the issue is not being remembered for just one day.

It is about being treated equally every day.

Because equality is not a ceremony.

And it is certainly not a campaign.

If it is a communication strategy, it is not one at all.

Equality is the character of an institution.

And true sincerity, is not in handing out carnations;

it is hidden in what order the hand that distributes that carnation serves for the rest of the year.

News Source: 12punto