Sabancı emphasizes 'combating gender roles'

Sabancı Foundation Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı stated that they are working with all their might to ensure that women and girls participate in economic and social life without dropping out of education.

Sabancı said, "As we enter the second century of our Republic, we need to ensure that girls participate equally in education and aim to empower them in areas such as self-confidence, leadership, and the competencies of the future so that they can build their own futures."

Emphasizing that they believe in girls, Sabancı noted the following:

"When we pave the way for them, we see them turn into the successful women of the future. In this sense, we all, especially families, have a great responsibility to ensure that girls have the self-confidence to combat the gender roles that stand as obstacles to shaping their futures, and that they grow up with equal opportunities.

We know that equality begins in the family, but we also believe that it must be supported in the same way within the education system. Fortunately, we have achieved significant gains in our country recently regarding girls' access to quality education. However, as we enter the second century of our Republic, these gains are not yet at the point we desire. Concrete and rapid steps must be taken so that girls can take part equally first in education and then in employment."

'THEY FACE DIFFICULTIES IN BUILDING THEIR FUTURES'

Sabancı stated that they see that girls in Turkey face difficulties in building their futures when viewed from both the education and employment dimensions. She explained that according to 2022 TUIK data, 45 percent of young women in the 18-29 age group are neither in education nor in employment (NEET), and when viewed by education level, 64 percent of young women with an education level below high school are neither in education nor in employment, while this rate is 33.5 percent among university graduates.

Pointing out that the risk of being NEET decreases as the education level increases, Sabancı made the following assessment:

"However, we see that university-graduate young women, who encounter gender roles in every area of life, also face obstacles in building their futures. For this reason, as we enter the second century of our Republic, we need to ensure that girls participate equally in education and aim to empower them in areas such as self-confidence, leadership, and the competencies of the future so that they can build their own futures.

Because we know that when girls are offered opportunities to reveal their potential, they chase their dreams and achieve successes that will change the world. Changing the life of one girl also causes her to transform her environment. As the Sabancı Foundation, we will continue to work with all our might in the second century of our Republic to ensure that girls take part in education today and in employment tomorrow."