Inspiring Women's Day celebration from Metro Istanbul !

M5 Sürücüsüz Metro Hattı Avrupa’da 1., Dünya'da 3. Oldu!

Publish Date

10.03.2021
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Inspiring Women's Day celebration from Metro Istanbul !

Metro Istanbul, one of the affiliates of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), celebrates March 8th, International Women's Day with events that underline the courage of women and the inspiration this courage gives to their fellows.
Metro Istanbul underlines the courage of women and the inspiration this courage gives to their fellows with the events it organises on March 8th, International Women's Day.

25 women who broke new ground in our history

Turkey's largest urban rail systems operator, Metro Istanbul, brought together 25 important women of our history, who broke new grounds, with Istanbulites, through the brush of an artist, on Monday, March 8th, on the wall of the M2-M7 Connection Tunnel at Mecidiyekoy Station, one of the important transit points of Istanbul. With this work, consisting of portraits of 25 women who broke new ground in important fields in our history and paved the way for the next generations was gifted to Istanbulites. The opening of the 990x460 cm work was held on Monday, 8th March at 13.30 with the participation of the Association for Supporting Women Candidates (KA.DER), our artist and the General Manager of Metro Istanbul.
Metro Istanbul’ un Guclu Kadinlari (Strong Women of Metro Istanbul) photography exhibition
Metro Istanbul, which increases the number of women employees day by day by operating in the rail systems sector, which is dominated by men all over the world. Metro Istanbul acts with the belief that women can do any job and prepared an exhibition called "Metro Istanbul’ un Guclu Kadinlari (Strong Women of Metro Istanbul)", which includes 40 women out of 429 women employees who successfully applied to this event. The exhibition held at Mecidiyekoy Station can be seen between 8th to 31st March.

General Manager shot the photos
The women participating in the event were photographed by Özgür Soy, General Manager of Metro Istanbul. General Manager Soy said, “When we were planning our events for International Women's Day, the idea of organising an exhibition of photographs of our women employees was suggested, I really liked it. Project was exciting both for my photographer hat and as a general manager, photographing my women colleagues for International Women's Day would be a powerful message for this day.
Women are imprisoned in the missions imposed on them all over the world. While we were planning our shoots, we wanted our employees to express themselves in their own reality. They gave the message that they were successful by living freely in a masculine industry. Those who wished posed with make-up materials, those who wished with a mixer, and those who wished with their daughter… Shooting that lasted for 3 days was very enjoyable and I believe we did a good job at the end. We know that no matter what field they work in, our women employees successfully fulfil their duties and inspire their fellows. For this reason, I am extremely happy and proud to have signed such a project”.

“We want to be an example in our industry”
Stating that the women employee rate of the company was around 8% when they took office, General Manager Özgür Soy said, “We are taking steps to support gender equality in society by showing that women do every job in every sector. Accordingly, 92% of our recruitment in 2020 consisted of women. For the first time in the company's 33-year history, we recruited a woman station supervisor. Again, for the first time, 6 female tram drivers started their duties. We want to increase this number even more and we believe that it will increase. Because our female friends working in our company set an example for their fellows with the success they show in their jobs. We approach this issue as a change and transformation movement, and we want to set an example in our industry”.

“A transformative change is needed”
According to the 2020 Women, Business and Law Report prepared by the World Bank; Stating that only 10 countries in the world have given women 100% equal rights, General Manager Soy said, “We are one of the first countries in the world to give women the right to vote and be elected in 1933. However, in this report, which includes 190 countries today, Turkey unfortunately ranks 78th with a rate of 82.5%.
We also see the negative effects of gender inequality on women with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been affecting the whole world for more than a year. According to the 2020 UN Women Report, the rate of women who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 process is 18.8%, while the rate of men is 14.2%. We are taking solid steps for a transformative change so that the gender equality discourse does not remain in words and he said, “We are proud of that".