A summit organized by Turkuvaz Media Group on the occasion of International Women’s Day brought together accomplished women of the country on Tuesday. From Minister of Family and Social Policies Derya Yanık to the prominent female Mayor of Gaziantep Fatma Şahin, the summit at Turkuvaz’s headquarters in Istanbul highlighted the challenges of women and their contribution to Turkey’s development.

Yanık said in a video message to the event that women’s labor was behind Turkey’s success. "With the support and confidence of women, we achieved progress in many fields in the past two decades. For our part, we tried to do our best for women, from education to health to employment. We witnessed that in every field women had a say and their roles prospered," she said.

The minister also touched upon the media’s role in women’s rights and said media had an important task for "responsible coverage" that helps fight against violence toward women and discrimination.

Speaking at a panel during the summit hosted by Dilek Güngör, manager of business news at Daily Sabah’s sister Sabah newspaper, Mayor Fatma Şahin said every woman had a success story in her life. "We are more prominent due to our job but every woman, from those working in agriculture to executive positions in companies, have a success story." She said Turkey had come a long way since she graduated from university as an engineer in the 1980s. "People would think women cannot be engineers. I remember a time when there was only one woman among 150 men working at a company and she was confined to laboratory work," she said.

Şahin noted that she was elected the first female lawmaker from Gaziantep thanks to the efforts of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who nominated her, referring to her previous office, which was followed by a tenure as minister at the helm of the newly founded Ministry of Family. "I was elected as mayor of Gaziantep in 2014 and until then, the job of mayor was traditionally confined to men. During my tenure, I appointed women as heads of almost all departments in the municipality. This was not due to their gender but based on their past accomplishments," she highlighted.