No women directors in half of companies listed in Istanbul stock exchange

ISTANBUL

Some 44.5 percent of companies on Istanbul’s main stock exchange, BIST, have no women members on their board of directors.

A total of 190 companies on the stock exchange have no women on their boards, according to the Independent Women Directors (IWD) project’s second annual report on women board members.

“The number of companies with a female chair in 2014 remained the same as last year, while the number of companies with two or more female board members decreased in 2014. Only 6.2 percent of companies have more than two women on their boards,” stated the latest report of the IWD project.

Although there has been no significant change in the total number of female board members in 2014, there has been a considerable change in the number of companies with independent female directors on their boards, said the report. Companies on the BIST with female independent members increased from 15.7 percent in 2013 to 18 percent in 2014, according to the report.

The IWD project was initiated in 2012 by Istanbul’s Sabancı University with the financial endorsement of the General Consulate of Sweden in Turkey and in strategic partnership with Egon Zehnder International Turkey.