On 24 November 2022, the Informatics Association of Türkiye (IAT) received the Gold level certificate of DiversIT Charter. The Gold level certificate recognises the recipient as being a leader in achieving gender equality in IT professions. IAT had obtained the Bronze level certificate in November 2019. Now, after 3 years, they were ready to recertify, and this time for Gold.
Gillian Arnold, Member of the Board at CEPIS and the leader of the assessment panel, said: “We were blown away by the scope and impact of the activities that IAT has been doing. We particularly liked the clear objectives which were the framework for the IAT’s women’s group’s diversity efforts. We were impressed with the consistent work in all areas, including women on panels and at events. The assessment team particularly hopes that other CEPIS member societies will follow IAT’s best practice examples.”
The Informatics Association of Türkiye has actively worked towards increasing the number of women in technology since 1997, when it organised training of 40,000 women in partnership with 40 universities. Nowadays their work for gender equality in tech includes providing advice to the women information technology specialists, encouraging and guiding the undergraduate girls in coding, holding training programmes regarding information technologies and use for the women who can effectively benefit from information technologies and use the production and services for economic purposes and raising awareness in women regarding safe internet use, social media, related risks and problems, as well as the protective measures they can take at home.
Rahmi Aktepe, the President of IAT, said: “We are honoured to receive this certificate. We believe that it is an indicator of long years of hard work for and with women in tech. We are determined to continue our efforts and we are happy to share our experience with other stakeholders. We are highly motivated. In the following months to come, we will be restructuring IAT Women Task Force so that all through Türkiye we will carry out projects and activities to encourage especially girls to become more keen on STEM.”
