Women-Friendly Practices

Women-Friendly Practices

Proceeding with the philosophy of “People First”, Yeşim has prioritized the empowerment of women in social life since the day it was founded. Yeşim, which is one of the companies with the highest number of female employees in Türkiye, will continue to operate in accordance with its identity as a “Women-Friendly Company” in the future, just as it has in the past, with the awareness of the value that female employees add to the workforce.
Women
Men

Women make up more than half of the employees at the Bursa Factory of Yeşim, which signed the “Management is a Women’s Right” declaration of the Turkish Quality Association (KalDer) in 2009.

In 2013, Yeşim initiated the “World of the Butterfly” project for its female employees with the slogan “When women change, society changes.” The project continues its efforts to go beyond Yeşim’s borders and ensure that women living in disadvantaged areas gain awareness of issues such as health, rights and personal development.

Yeşim, by signing the “Women’s Empowerment Principles” (WEPs) created in cooperation with UN Women and UN Global Compact in 2015, has pledged to carry out activities aimed at gender equality and the empowerment of women in business life and society, and to report on these activities annually. You can access our Sustainability Reports here.
 

In 2015, Yeşim became a founding member of the “Business Against Domestic Violence Network” (BADV), which is conducted in cooperation with TÜSİAD and with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Sabancı Foundation.


The Yeşim Group was the founding coordinator of the Bursa Platform for Women’s Empowerment and played an active role in the launch of the platform in 2016. At the point it has reached, the platform continues to carry out exemplary work with the strength of its WEPs signatory members.


Yeşim also performed an exemplary act in cooperation with Mor Salkım Women’s Solidarity Association by implementing the “Equality at Home and Work” project in 2016 to ensure gender equality in the workplace and to develop a business culture that does not tolerate violence against women. In the same year, the Gender Equality Committee was launched under the umbrella of Yeşim.
You can access our Gender Equality Policy here.
 

With the steps taken by Yeşim towards women's empowerment;

  • Yeşim received the award for “The Company that Most Values Women’s Employment” from BUİKAD (Bursa Business and Professional Women’s Association) in 2010.
  • Yeşim received the award named “The Wrens Discover Bursa” within the scope of International Girls’ Day in 2013.
  • Yeşim was awarded the prize for “Second Best Company in Turkey” in a competition held within the scope of the “Improving Gender Equality in Working Life” activities carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in 2014.
  • Yeşim was awarded the first prize in the “Generation and Diversity Management” category at the Human Value awards ceremony held at PERYÖN (People Management Association of Turkey) Headquarters in 2019.
  • Yeşim received the third prize among the “Anatolia 500 Women-Friendly Companies” in the “Anatolia’s 500 Largest Companies” survey organized by Economist Magazine in 2021.
  • In the same year, Yeşim was entitled to receive the Awareness Award and Consumer Special Award at the “Women-Friendly Brands Special Awards” ceremony organized by the Women-Friendly Brands Platform.
  • In 2023, Yeşim was included in the Business Against Domestic Violence companies’ good practice examples booklet.
    For other BADV publications featuring Yeşim Group, also see:
    A Guidebook to the Development and Implementation of Company Policies Regarding Domestic Violence against Women (2017)
    Business Against Intimate Partner Violence (2020)
  • In the same year, Yeşim was selected as one of the 3 “WEPs Ambassadors”, along with Boyner and Unilever, within the scope of the “WEPs From Words to Action” project of the WEPs (Women’s Empowerment Principles) Center of Excellence to be established by UN Women Türkiye.
  • Again in 2023, as a result of the assessments made by Nike Headquarters, the Yeşim Group’s main plant became the first and only supplier in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions to be calibrated at the highest level in terms of gender equality.
  • The Awareness Circle workshop program, implemented in cooperation with Yeşim Group, Uludağ Soroptimist Club and Bursa Karapınar Women's Cooperative in order to raise women's awareness on gender equality and legal rights, was awarded by the Women Friendly Brands Platform in the category of Women Entrepreneurs and Women's Empowerment.