Over 100 years ago, 15,000 women in New York paved the way for what has become a monumental day for women’s rights worldwide.
On February 28, 1909, in New York City, women gathered for the first-ever “Woman’s Day” a movement sparked by activist Theresa Malkiel and organised by the Socialist Party of America to demand their rights. And now, March 8th is the day we recognise outstanding issues regarding gender inequality in social, political, societal, and economic fields. It is also a celebration and reminder of milestones achieved by women.
At Parla, whilst we recognize the outstanding struggles of the past, we like to take a look at our progress so far.
We are proud to say that almost half of our white-collar workforce is female. Amongst those employees are directors, managers and designers, all of them hard-working professionals in their field of work. Their success has also been attested to, as some of our female designers have won many renowned design awards. Making sure they are well looked after in the Parla setting, giving them opportunities to grow into their full potential, we are definitely committed to their empowerment.
Looking forward, we aspire to take our focus on women’s empowerment up a notch, both within and outside our company.
One of our charitable activities is supporting TEGEV, a Turkish organisation that helps primary school children discover their social, emotional, cognitive and academic skills with educational programmes & projects, and this year we have raised money for a project of theirs that focuses on girls’ education.
Another one of our activities is that we are currently in the process of aligning with United Nation’s WEPs. The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), established by UN Women and UN Global Compact, guide businesses in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community.
In the words of Okan Kılınçarslan, Parla’s Human Resources Manager, “Parla donated to TEGEV in the name of our female employees this year. In addition, we are committed to fulfilling the requirements for UN’s WEP programme.”
For us Women’s Day is not just one day in a whole year of 365 days, we pledge to continue our work for women’s empowerment throughout the year, with many more projects in the works. Watch this space to hear about more activities we do that motivate us to turn up for women every day of the year!
