"Being a Woman in Difficult Times" Panel and Workshop Held

Within the scope of "8 March International Women's Day," which we observed while deeply feeling the pain of the earthquakes that saddened us all and of the women struggling in the disaster region, we held the "Being a Woman in Difficult Times" Panel and Workshop.

In the opening speech of the "Being a Woman in Difficult Times" Program, which we, as Bahçeşehir University, implemented in cooperation with the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Türkiye while maintaining our institutional sensitivity toward the earthquakes in our country, BAU Social Impact and Responsibility Center Director Prof. Dr. Çisil Sohodol gave information on how women are affected by disasters and women's needs during disaster periods, and shared United Nations reports on the inclusion of women in disaster preparedness and management processes in order to build resilient communities.

Speaking on behalf of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Türkiye, Nuran Aksu shared the results of the women's perception survey they conducted in the business world, emphasizing that women's problems and vulnerability deepen further during disaster periods and therefore the importance of carrying out women-focused work.

Following the opening speeches, in the Panel moderated by Prof. Dr. Çisil Sohodol, the contributions of Impact2030 Impact Council Chair Arzu Pınar Demirel, Kadir Has University Gender and Women's Studies Center Event and Project Coordinator Deniz Altuntaş, BAU Equal Director and Women's Studies Leader Prof. Dr. Pınar Melis Yelsalı, and Mikado General Coordinator Şadan Ertekin Mis attracted great interest from participants. In the workshop held in the last part of the program, project and solution proposals were developed with a collaboration-based approach for the problem areas identified in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report on the disaster region.

The resulting workshop report is planned to be shared with the stakeholder groups of the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Türkiye and Bahçeşehir University and made open source. We thank the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Türkiye for its valuable cooperation and our guests for their participation, and we celebrate International Working Women's Day for all women, especially those in the earthquake region.