Op-Ed: It is a Man's World
Author: Ece Naz Doğanay
Yes, we live in the twenty-first century, and we are embracing equality on paper. However, where do women stand in the business world? They are on the edge, and their status is unsteady. As of 2025, only 18.7% of women are on the board of directors of companies in Türkiye.
When talking about women’s involvement in an exclusive group, the sociological background of the said country is of utmost importance. In Türkiye’s near sociological breakdown, women are the “underlings.” However, it was not always like that; in the first Turkish societies, men and women held an equal status. Women were gradually pushed toward the margins of society until the 1930s. Since then, women have been clawing their way back slowly after being exiled for nearly fifteen centuries. In less than a century, women made it to the doorstep of being let in. However, they are still carrying the burden of those fifteen centuries of exclusion.
Before equality, we should achieve inclusivity. Equality comes when decision-making is inclusive. The business world in Türkiye is not inclusive; hence, it cannot be equal. We are embracing equality through law, but are we inclusive enough to even be thinking of equality? The equality principle in Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution defines the optimal situation. Similarly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the laws are pushing our society to become the ideal version. However, they overlook the crucial fact that Turkish society did not have a place for women for fifteen centuries. Women’s seat was empty for so long that it was filled by their absence. And this absence became the new normal—for everyone, including women themselves.
The corporate world reproduces this male-to-male cycle of mentorship, networking, and decision-making. Boards are often a reflection of old boys’ clubs, where positions are offered not only based on merit but on access, an access women have historically been denied. While governments can have equal legislations, companies must operationalize it. Legal frameworks alone cannot build inclusive workspaces; that requires cultural transformation within corporations.
Women having a seat on the table is not merely enough; they need a voice to be heard. And that begins with companies acknowledging the structural inequality embedded in their hierarchies. Initiatives like mentorship programs, equal parental leave, and gender-sensitive hiring policies are not “favors” to women.
Today’s world is a man’s world, but tomorrow’s world can be everyone’s. The transition depends not only on laws but on mindsets, on whether institutions and individuals are ready to replace the comfort of exclusion with the courage of inclusion.