During the meeting on Friday evening on October 22^nd, 2010 which took place in German Consulate General in İstanbul, a delegation from KAGİDER and the President of Federal Republic of Germany Christian Wulff came together. A thorough discussion took place on breaking the mutual prejudices and building more cooperation grounds to improve women’s social position.

During the one hour meeting, President’s wife, Madam Bettina Wulff, the German Consul General of Istanbul, Madam Brita Waganer and the previous principal of the German Parliament Madam Rita Süssmuth accompanied President Wulff.

While President Wulff invited Gülseren Onanç, to the Presidential Palace in Berlin, Onanç kindly requested Madam Bettina Wulff to be a voluntary ambassador of KAGİDER for women’s issues between Germany and Turkey.

While Onanç was talking about KAGİDER’s activities, she said, “The percentage of women in Turkey who take part in the administrative body of companies is more than two times bigger than the percentage in Europe. In our country this percentage is 15% while it is about 6-7% in Europe. The percentage of female employment is 24%, which is very much below the average percentage of Europe and OECD.”

Wulff mentioned that she tries to get to know Turkey better, and is aware of KAGİDER’s activities, and that she believes in gender equality, and continued: “I see that women are more contentious and hardworking than men. I believe that in about thirty years women will get the upper hand and than men will struggle for equality.”