The summit on "Artificial Intelligence and Women" organized by KADEM and the Ministry of Family and Social Services on 8-9 November 2024 was held at Haliç University with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In addition to President Erdoğan, Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, academics, business world representatives and many names from non-governmental organizations attended the summit.
Delivering the opening speech of the ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned the steps taken to increase women's participation in education, business and social life for 22 years. Erdoğan said, "We removed all obstacles in front of women's right to education and made positive discrimination a law in the national constitution. In the future, we will correct wherever there are mistakes and take the necessary steps together with women."
Drawing attention to the fact that women are disproportionately affected by crises and wars, Erdoğan also emphasized the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. "We do not remember a war in which women were targeted as much as the genocide in Gaza. The international community needs to take action against the cruelty to which women and children are subjected."
In her speech, Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş drew attention to the importance of women taking more active roles in technology, innovation and artificial intelligence in a digitalizing world. Minister Göktaş emphasized that empowering women and girls with digital skills will enable them to be more effective in the business world of the future. She mentioned that they will always support women for this purpose.
In her speech at the opening ceremony, KADEM Chairman Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saliha Okur Gümrükçüoğlu stated that KADEM aims to ensure balanced participation of women in social life on the basis of equal opportunities since 2013. She emphasized that they are actively involved in legal processes in the fight against violence against women and that they work for women's rights at national and international level. Gümrükçüoğlu stated that for a sustainable equality, prejudices against artificial intelligence technologies should be identified and data should be handled more fairly.
As part of the 6th International Women and Justice Summit, the event organized at Haliç University created an important awareness by offering suggestions and solutions to help women reach a stronger and more effective position in the artificial intelligence and digitalizing world. The ideas that came to the fore at the summit were evaluated as a meaningful step for Turkey to reinforce its pioneering role in this field.