Women in banks work, while men manage

Although the number of female banking employees exceeds the number of male banking employees, the sector's senior staff consists mostly of men. According to a study titled "Female Directors in the Turkish Banking Sector" conducted by Istanbul University's Banking Research Center, male employees constitute 48.3 percent of staff while females constitute 51.7 percent of staff in the banking sector where a total of more than 200,000 people are employed. Despite these figures, merely five banks out of a total of 52 have female general managers, which corresponds to 9.62 percent in the overall banking sector.

All five banks under the administration of female general managers are funded by foreign capital and three out of the five female managers graduated from Boğaziçi University. Similarly, there are merely 55 female deputy general managers among a total of 373 working in the sector. A similar situation applies to the administrative boards of banks, as there are only two banks that employ female CEOs in Turkey. One of these banks is a deposit bank while the other is an investment bank. Moreover, both female CEOs received their bachelor's degrees abroad and both banks have private capital. Additionally, there are only 31 female executive board members out of a total of 403 working in the sector, corresponding to 8 percent in the overall banking sector. There is at least one female executive board member in a total of 23 banks in Turkey. There is no major difference in the number of female executive board members in public and private banks, while foreign-owned banks have more female executive board members.