Gender Equality Plan 2023

Gender Equality Plan

Introduction

Boğaziçi University aims to advance gender equality in research, academia, and administration. Several University departments work toward objectives including boosting the visibility and involvement of women in social and academic life, collecting and updating the relevant records, and expanding the database of female statistics in these areas.

National Content

Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution guarantees equality before the law: “Everyone is equal before the law without distinction as to language, race, color, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion, and sect, or any such grounds. (Paragraph added on May 7, 2004; Act No. 5170) Men and women have equal rights. The State should ensure that this equality exists in practice. (Sentence added on September 12, 2010; Act No. 5982). Measures taken for this purpose shall not be interpreted as contrary to the principle of equality. (Paragraph added on September 12, 2010; Act No. 5982) Measures to be taken for children, the elderly, disabled people, widows, and orphans of martyrs as well as for the invalid and veterans shall not be considered a violation of the principle of equality. No privilege shall be granted to any individual, family, group, or class. State organs and administrative authorities are obliged to act in compliance with the principle of equality before the law in all their proceedings.”

• Turkey is a member of the UN, NATO, OECD, G-20, and OIC, and a candidate country for EU accession. In 1934, Turkish women were among the first in Europe to achieve the right to vote and run for elected Office. Turkey has a strong women’s movement, and women’s human rights activists have mobilized nationwide campaigns against violence against women and contributed to the adoption of gender equality legislation.
• Turkey became a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1985 and ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in 2002. Turkey was the first country to sign (2011) and ratify (2012) the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
• In 2015, The Council of Higher Education (CHE) issued the Position Paper on Gender Equality in Higher Education.
• In 2019, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) published the Policy Guidelines for Increasing the Participation of Women Researchers in TUBITAK processes.
• Turkey’s 11th National Development Plan 2019-2023 contains goals and measures to empower women, prevent discrimination against them, and ensure that women have equal access to the rights, opportunities, and facilities available to men.

GEP is publicly available on the following website

Data Analysis

Boğaziçi University committed to gathering and publishing academic, social, and physical statistics on the following sites and in the annual reports: https:// Genel/Sayilarla_Bogazici_Universitesi. According to the Colleges and Institutions, the reports include gender-based statistics for both students and academic and administrative employees.

• Every strategic term (usually three to five years), the Equality Plan will be updated.
• Gender-based data will be evaluated in the University’s and its faculties’ yearly reports and will be examined during performance discussions.

On our website, the following gender-based statistics will be published each year.

• graduates,
• undergraduate degrees and postgraduate degrees
• new students
• international students
• staff by a task group
• fixed term staff by a task group
• Qualitative data is generated to track the status of equality.
• Workplace well-being surveys, which will include questions about the equality situation, will be conducted regularly.
• Responsible/Supporting Units collaborate with equality-promoting organizations.
• Data protection concerns will be addressed in the creation of statistics and communications.

Training & Developing Capacity

The Institution will provide a strategy of available training on gender equality in general and specifically the areas of gender-sensitive research and teaching, and gender mainstreaming in 2023 to improve the current training opportunities. The following training sessions will be organized by the Career Center, Commission on Prevention of Sexual Harassment (CİTÖK), Lifelong Learning Center (BÜYEM), Women’s Studies Club (BÜKAK), Student Ethics Committee (ÖEK), and Committee on Ethical Behavior in University Life (ÜYEK):

• Good Practices in Gender-sensitive teaching
• Good Practices in Gender Mainstreaming
• Understanding Gendered & Discriminatory Practices in Academia
• The role of Organizational Culture and ways to change it
• Re-thinking the Forms of Resistances: Explicit Bias & Implicit Bias
• Eliminating the gender pay gap
• Tackling gender inequality
• Equality, diversity, and inclusion
• Handling gender inequality
• Facilitating gender inclusiveness in class

SECTION 1: Recruitment and Career Progression

Boğaziçi University Personnel Department (PD) works in accordance with the university’s vision and mission to develop plans, policies, and methods related to matters like identifying the necessary human resources needs, selection, job placement, education, career and performance management, motivation, management of individual and collective labor relations, occupational health and safety, and management of terminations.

In this framework, PD has made the decision to guarantee social progress, fight gender prejudice and social marginalization, and abolish all forms of discrimination. In all the events and educational initiatives that our university sponsors, Boğaziçi University emphasizes the importance of equality and the promotion of social justice. No of a person’s gender, affiliation, disability, or socioeconomic standing, these distinctions do not pose a barrier to employment.

The Higher Education Law (No. 2547), the Regulation on Promotion and Appointment to Faculty Members, and the Regulation on the Procedures and Principles to be Applied in Recruiting Workers for Public Institutions and Organizations all contain regulations that must be followed when hiring academic staff. These regulations do not facilitate career advancements for the underrepresented gender or recruitment and gender-sensitive selection practices.

Although the Turkish Constitution and Turkish Labor Law contain provisions to prevent discrimination against employees and citizens, respectively, Boğaziçi University has neither gender-sensitive hiring practices nor any policies to guard against discrimination against women in hiring for academic or administrative positions:
Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution guarantees equality before the law: “Everyone is equal before the law without distinction as to language, race, color, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion, and sect, or any such grounds. (Paragraph added on May 7, 2004; Act No. 5170) Men and women have equal rights. The State has an obligation to ensure that this equality exists in practice. (Sentence added on September 12, 2010; Act No. 5982) Measures taken for this purpose shall not be interpreted as contrary to the principle of equality. (Paragraph added on September 12, 2010; Act No. 5982) Measures to be taken for children, the elderly, disabled people, widows, and orphans of martyrs as well as for the invalid and veterans shall not be considered a violation of the principle of equality. No privilege shall be granted to any individual, family, group, or class. State organs and administrative authorities are obliged to act in compliance with the principle of equality before the law in all their proceedings.”

Again, in the Turkish Human Rights and Equality Institution Law No. 6701, There are also regulations regarding the prohibition of discrimination.

At Boğaziçi University, gender equality is considered a vital and significant fundamental among all applicants. As a public university, the hiring and hiring processes in the Institution are governed by general laws; therefore, no unconscious or implicit gender bias could influence hiring and hiring decisions.

SECTION 2: Mechanisms for sexual harassment and discrimination

Boğaziçi University has created policies and practices to prevent assault and harassment of this nature. In 2012, the Commission to Prevent Sexual Harassment (CİTÖK) was founded. The CİTÖK strives to offer help, direction, and solutions on sexual harassment and discrimination to the academic, administrative, contracted personnel, and students working full-time or part-time in Boğaziçi University and its affiliated entities. In accordance with the Disciplinary Rules for Administrators, Academic Staff, and Officials in Higher Education Institutions, CİTÖK actively strives to make recommendations and judgments. Investigations into allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse of students must adhere to student discipline regulations.

Moreover, since 1992, the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Service (BÜREM) has continued to provide psychologists and counselors to the faculty, employees, and students. In addition to its regular operations, the BÜREM, a service under the Rectorate, also hosts seminars, symposiums, and in-service training sessions. The staff members also serve on relevant commissions and advisory boards for numerous institutions and organizations, particularly those within the University. A member of the CİTÖK as well as one of the psychological counselors supports the complaints as needed.

Students, faculty, and all other university employees have a limited understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment and discrimination, which includes a lack of knowledge on what to do in the event of violence and harassment in the classroom and online. Most of the time, faculty and students are unaware of the policies and codes of behavior that apply in cases of harassment and discrimination, which would result in misinformation, deception, and occasionally a lack of trust in the efficient complaint and assistance channels. The CİTÖK was founded to provide efficient complaints and assistance platforms as it ensures confidentiality in application processes.

SECTION 3 – Research and Teaching

The University supports and allows internal funding for scientific research projects, referred to as BAP, and the faculty additionally receives external funding from international institutions like EU-sponsored programs, etc. There are no funds for specific gender studies programs, even though faculty and researchers are working on cuttingedge, highly significant research in the fields of engineering, technology, art, and law, as well as infrastructure development and socioeconomic value creation in many different areas.

The university will also fulfill a necessary condition of gender equality ranking systems in higher education, like the Times Higher Education rankings, by institutionalizing processes and practices for incorporating gender in research. To tackle the identified challenges above, Boğaziçi University will adopt the following set of measures:

SECTION 4 – Work-Life Balance

New categories of rights and leaves are provided for mothers and parents under Civil Servants Law No. 657, which has undergone substantial changes since 2016. The modified maternity leave provisions of Public Servants Law No. 657 strictly adhere to Boğaziçi University. With the changes made to Law No. 657, women civil servants were given 16-week maternity leave and a half-day work permit in the postpartum period for women officers, but this does not apply to women academics, according to the general notification document No: 296 (13.04.2016) of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Both men and women are eligible to make a part-time employment claim up until the first of the month after the child’s first day of compulsory school.

A successful academic career involves a full commitment to research and teaching, which necessitates working long hours. Several studies and our observations indicate that during the COVID-19 epidemic, the workload on women has increased disproportionately, notably for work-related and home tasks. Due to the lopsided gender division of labor in private life, women will continue to shoulder most of the duties, making it challenging for them to combine their professional and personal lives. Women’s careers, performance levels, and more importantly a sense of success are all impacted by the double workload they bear.

Also, there is a widely held belief among scholars that women’s issues are the sole ones related to gender equality. But fostering an environment that allows both men and women to have fruitful careers in research depends on the happiness of all participants, regardless of gender. Boğaziçi University will implement the following set of initiatives to address the issues noted above:

SECTION 5 -Institutionalization for Gender Equality

Boğaziçi University has endorsed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations and agrees with their core principles (for more information, visit http://unsdsn.boun.edu.tr/). Through preserving a sustainable natural ecosystem, ensuring dignity, fostering equality and peace, fostering thriving, all-encompassing social orders, and expanding associations, the SDGs aim to reduce inequality and improve people’s lives and the environment. These goals specify and mold the faculties’ and the administration’s mindsets and attitudes.

The obligation to advance gender equity has seen improvements in some areas, but the promise of a society where every woman appreciates full sexual orientation equality and all legal, social, and financial barriers to their strengthening have been removed still has some gaps to be addressed. The exploratory projects that go along with it have been specifically modified to reflect Sustainable Development Goal 5 and the ways to achieve gender equity and involve all women and young women. These initiatives and endeavors demonstrate the University’s dedication to the SDGs (for more information, visit http://unsdsn.boun.edu.tr/5-amac).

The University’s Ethical Principles document requires respect for human rights, moral behavior, and gender equality. According to what it says, “1 - Respect for human rights and freedoms, 2 - Fair and honest treatment without bias based on religion, language, race, ethnic origin, opinion, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical impairment, and similar traits.”

At different levels of the University, there is no systematic evaluation of people’s experiences, opinions, attitudes, behaviors, and feelings based on the gender-specific environment. Putting both quantitative and qualitative indicators would allow for the assessment and guidance of gender equality development at all levels, including academic administration responsibilities within the University.

Chapter 5 of Boğaziçi University Gender Equality Plan emphasises equality of sexual orientation. According to Boğaziçi University Code of Ethics, "1 - Respect for human rights and freedoms, 2 - Fair and honest behaviour without discrimination and prejudice based on religion, language, race, ethnic origin, opinion, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical disability and similar characteristics". Boğaziçi University Commission for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (CİTÖK) is a commission established to provide trainings, develop policies and create an action plan to prevent sexual harassment and violence at the university.

Related Links:

Boğaziçi University Ethical Principles:

https://bogazici.edu.tr/tr-TR/Content/Genel/Etik_Ilkeler