BRIAN SMITH | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Özlem Denizmen, of Turkish conglomerate the Doğuş Group, delivers Thursday’s morning lecture in the Amphitheater about the importance of financial literacy and bridging the gender gap in the workplace.
Alan: Ms. Denizmen's husband would breast-feed their children to afford his wife more time for her mission.
Alan: Ms. Denizmen's husband would breast-feed their children to afford his wife more time for her mission.
If one grew up in a country where money, capital and finance were rarely talked about, imagine how hard it would be to invest, buy a home or even create a savings account.
As a pioneer of financial literacy in her home country of Turkey where that is that case, Özlem Denizmen wants to start that conversation.
Denizmen, who was named a “Young Global Leader” in 2011 by the World Economic Forum, gave Thursday’s morning lecture in the Amphitheater on why she believes that Turkey is on track to become an even greater global force and how women are an important factor in the country’s future. Her 10:45 a.m. lecture was the fourth in this week’s series, “Turkey: A Model for the Middle East?”
Denizmen grew up in Turkey but moved to New York when she was 19 to work as an au pair. After receiving degrees from Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she returned to Turkey and worked as the head of social investments for Doğuş Group, one of Turkey’s biggest conglomerates that includes businesses in energy, entertainment, financial services and real estate.
In August 2009, Denizman was on a flight to a business conference when she picked up a copy ofThe Economist magazine. The cover story depicted a 13-year-old from Afghanistan seated next to a 60-year-old man. The man had won her in a gambling bet with the girl’s father, and the two were engaged to be married.
“I was astounded,” Denizmen said. “I kept looking at this picture and I said, ‘I can’t just live minding my business. I have to do something for the world.’ And this photo was sort of like my ‘wow’ moment. I said, what is that I know how to do? And I figured out that an area that Turkey very much needs [help] is in financial literacy.”
After her “wow” moment, Denizmen approached her boss at Doğuş Group and asked for permission to use her time at work to begin a startup.
“He said, ‘Oz, go for it,’ ” she said. “ ‘We have to be helping our country.’ ”
Denizmen said there are many factors that have led to financial illiteracy in Turkey, especially among women. The cultural norms in Turkey are such that discussing any type of money, whether it be at school, at home or among friends, is strictly taboo. Among women especially, failure to understand the financial system can cause embarrassment. Denizmen believes that fostering a basic understanding of finance will lead to a changing culture.
Turkey’s economy is primed for growth. Interest and inflation rates are the lowest they’ve been in years, Denizmen said. Life expectancy has increased and new financial products are on the market. Turkey has a huge “unbanked population,” she said; up to 20 percent of Turkish citizens still hide cash in places like their refrigerators and under their mattresses. This means that the potential for economic growth in Turkey is even greater.
Turkey’s economy is the 17th largest in the world, with an annual gross domestic product of $786 billion, Denizmen said. Turkey has Europe’s fifth-largest labor force. The past 10 years have seen double-digit percentage economic growth, and even though the rate has come down to earth in the past couple years, it still hovers at a more-than-robust 5 percent. The United States’ growth rate, meanwhile, is around 2 percent. Companies such as Microsoft Corp., General Electric Co. and Pfizer Inc. have opened offices in Turkey, providing jobs and increasing the country’s exports.
Half of Turkey’s population is under the age of 30, and the country has a tech-savvy, secular and diverse populace that Denizmen said is indicative of the country’s high entrepreneurial spirit.
One thing that does need to change is the involvement of women in the country’s evolving economy, Denizmen said.
Even though women have historically been included in Turkey’s civic life — women earned the right to vote in Turkey before women in France or Switzerland — they have been largely excluded from the private sector. All of the Turkish women in business could fit inside a soccer stadium, Denizmen said.
The gender pay gap is currently about 25 percent in Turkey. And even though recent reforms in fields like health care and education have helped give women equal access to these fields, Denizmen believes more aggressive tactics are needed.
In 2011, she started a multiplatform media organization called Para Durumu, which is dedicated to improving the financial literacy of women. The group uses social media, print newspapers, magazines, blogs and television to explain how to budget for things like weddings, home ownership, groceries, savings and credit cards. It is the first organization of its kind in Turkey. Denizmen has helped hundreds of thousands of women to speak the language of money, and many women she met with have gone on to form businesses of their own.
Denizmen credits her time spent in America as part of her inspiration for creating Para Durumu.
“One of things that America has taught me is to dream,” she said. “A candle doesn’t lose its light by lighting another candle.”