Recently, the impact of women in business have been increasing day by day as in all sectors. Today, many women start their own businesses and achieve serious success. In addition, we see that 33 out of Fortune Top 500 companies have female CEOs. Considering that there was only ONE female CEO in the 1970s in the top 500 Fortune companies, there is serious progress. However, if we take look at the ration, definitely, more steps still need to be taken.

Female CEOs Fortune 500 Companies

As Hackquarters, we’re willing to have this role to build a community for empowering women and promoting their stories.

Happy WOMEN’S DAY!💙#hackuarters #womensday pic.twitter.com/sNmtVPEZOA

— Hackquarters (@hackquarters) March 8, 2020

What is WomenUP?

WomenUP is a series event in order to bring together male and female entrepreneurs, corporate executives, investors, and various organizations supporting women in business. It aims to promote success stories of the women who lead innovation in corporate enterprises. One of the other goals of the event is to empower more young girls and women to grow a business working with companies.

WomenUP started with the “How to Lead Innovation in Corporates” panel. The panel was moderated by Emre Ölçer, Digital Banking Division and Entrepreneurship Unit Manager at Türkiye İş Bankası. Afterwards, Kübra Yürekli, Head of Functional Leadership at Bayer, shared recent developments regarding G4A Acceleration Program in HealthTech, Wellness and Crop Science. Then, Tutku Konuk Altındal, Corporate Communication Manager at MediaMarkt, presented insights on Retail Startup Challenge initiated for the last 2 years and covering startups from Turkey, Greece, and Switzerland. At the end, Fatma Ayanoğlu, Head of Women Research Center at Marmara University, shared governmental vision on the female participation and impact in business in Turkey.

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After the panel, Sanem Sağıroğlu from Startups.Watch, made a presentation on local and women entrepreneurship statistics in Turkey.Between 2010-2019:16% of Turkish startups have at least one female co-founder; with 84% of male foundersWomen entrepreneurs are most active in products for babies, social impact startups, and fashion sectorsOnly 5% (5 Million USD) of total of 102 Million USD investment in 2019 was raised by startups with female co-founders.

Speaking about the startup eco-system it was just impossible to skip investment and VC role in women empowerment. Fireside chat moderated by Berkay Şamiloğlu, Founder of IONED, raised crucial questions discussed with Gülsüm Çıracı, Founder of StartupFon. Gülsüm Çıracı shared the statistics and bottlenecks of the women founders while raising funds in Turkey; analyzing the success factors of women in technology.