Equbusiness book VERSION 28SEPT2023 - Flipbook - Page 29
5.2.1.2 GENDER RATIO IN TURKEY
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Family Ownership: Most of the board members in the Turkish focus groups and interviews pointed out
that being a family member is the leading method to get in the board for women. Different to the
Spanish sample though - although the difficulties of work-life balance are also predominant, especially
if they have children - female board members9 tendency to leave the family company and establish their
own companies is lower. Turkish female board members feel more freedom for time management in
their family firms.
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Leader’s View: Different to other countries, the Turkish sample implies that leader9s view on gender
diversity issues and determination in board gender diversity, is one of the leading factors of women9s
number on corporate boards. The number of women in boards would increase if the leader presented
this determination openly to the company. The Turkish interviewees refer to the main shareholders of
the company as the leaders, and their representatives on board. Turkey shows high Power Distance
scores in cross-cultural studies (Hofstede, 1980; 2001). Power Distance refers to the degree to which
members of an organization or society accept that power is shared unequally (House et al., 2004; Pagda
et al., 2021). Hofstede (1980) states that, in societies with high power distance, employees are afraid to
disagree with their supervisors. Most of the Turkish managers expect obedience from their
subordinates, and Turkish organizations generally have steep hierarchical organizational structures
(Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998; Pagda et al., 2021). And according to Pagda et al. (2021), a
paper that presented the views of 237 Turkish managers, the power distance scores of Turkey showed
no change between the years of 1995 and 2018. Carrasso et al. (2012) analyses European countries, and
present evidence that power distance is significant in explaining the differences in representation of
women on board.
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Stakeholders: If the women on the board, is not from the family, the sample pointed out that the
relationship with creditors is effective to get in the board. Turkey is a bank based, emerging country
where companies face high financing difficulties. Another effective stakeholder mentioned are NGOs.
NGOs are also effective for Turkey and being a member of NGOs that are specialized in gender equality
would support women to get in the board.
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Previous experience-training, and personal characteristics: For Turkey, previous experience in
accounting-finance, law, and human resources lead in the experience-training related factors. Crisis
management skills and engineering education are also effective.
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Internal quotas: According to the Turkish sample, the gender equality policies starting from the lowest
positions9 recruitment efforts, even when choosing interns from universities are supportive. However,
one of the board members also expresses that although the policies are set, they are usually not
followed:
