In the week of 8 March, International Women’s Day, we want to share with the public – and above all with the women+ working in publishing – the steps we have taken since we first came together as Kadın+ Edebiyatçılar (Women+ Writers). We believe this process must be transparent and accountable, and at a time when words are so easily blown away, we want to remind everyone of the importance of following things through.
We came together in August 2025 as the Kadın+ Edebiyatçılar group – open to everyone who works in literature and identifies under the women+ umbrella – to support the wave of sexual harassment disclosures that intensified that month. As women+ from different cities, different fields and very different walks of life, we set out with a cry of “Enough is enough” against the psychological, physical and sexual violence made visible in Türkiye through these disclosures.
On 11 September 2025, under the heading “A Call from Kadın+ Edebiyatçılar to the Publishing Sector”, we opened our demands for structural change in publishing for signature and announced that we would monitor the sector’s practices in this area.
On 25 November 2025, during the International Week for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we finalised the Kadın+ Edebiyatçılar Position Paper.
On 28 November 2025 we presented the Position Paper to the Turkish Publishers Association.
At our second meeting, on 9 February 2026, we submitted our suggestions on the text. The Publishers Association told us it was preparing a workshop on a Gender Equality Position Paper and would share the paper, revised in light of our suggestions, with the public on 8 March.
On 8 March 2026 the Turkish Publishers Association announced its “Gender Equality Position Paper” on its social media accounts and sent it to its members by email. It also said it would publish the paper on its website.
On 28 November 2025, at Frankeştayn Kitabevi, we held a press conference explaining who we are and what we demand. In the statement, we invited all institutions in publishing to draw up binding policy documents against sexual harassment, violence and discrimination, to set up complaint mechanisms and to allocate budgets for them, and declared that we would continue our struggle until we saw these steps taken in concrete form.
On 26 December 2025 we met the executive board of the Writers’ Union of Turkey and submitted the Position Paper. On 26 February 2026 the union shared the draft of the position paper it had been working on, and we are continuing to work on the text together.
On 20 February 2026 we met the Executive Board of PEN Türkiye and presented the Position Paper. PEN Türkiye said it would prepare a document led by two women members with experience in this area.
On 15 December 2025 we emailed the English version of the Position Paper and its visuals to international literary agencies, international writers and institutions.
On 18 December 2025 contact was made with Gvantsa Jobava, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), and with Karine Pansa, who is active in PublisHer and served as IPA President in the previous term, and the Position Paper was passed on to them.
We welcome these positive developments, but they are not enough. We call on all institutions, publishing houses and organisations working in publishing to take similar – and further – concrete steps to prevent gender-based discrimination and violence, and we remind them that we will be following these processes closely.
This is a summary of the steps we have taken so far on the road we set out on with the cry of Enough is Enough. Behind this brief summary, of course, lie hours of meetings, careful and painstaking work on everything from building equal and democratic relationships to the group’s internal operating principles – in short, the labour of every single member of Kadın+ Edebiyatçılar.
We restate our demands once more:
● That a Policy Document on the Prevention of Gender-Based Discrimination and Violence be drawn up, disseminated and shared openly with the public; ● That institutions’ Women’s Commissions work effectively, and that gender equality commissions be set up and run in institutions that do not have a Women’s Commission; ● That an institutional action plan to be followed in the event of a sexual harassment complaint be prepared and implemented; ● That the guidance of experienced women’s/feminist organisations be sought for all these processes; ● That budgets be allocated where necessary to fulfil the requirements of the policy documents; ● That all publishing houses set up a complaint mechanism for cases of sexual harassment, violence and discrimination occurring in physical or digital settings, with women+ making up the majority of the commissions/committees formed for this purpose; ● That a target of 50% women’s representation on jury and speaker lists at magazines and literary festivals be made an institutional principle; ● That training on equality, inclusive language and awareness based on feminist and queer theory be provided at all publishing houses that are members of the Association. ● That writers’ organisations and publishing bodies take on the responsibility of preventing gender-based discrimination and violence and of protecting the rights of their women+ members arising from the law and international conventions, and make the necessary changes to their statutes to this end. ● That the changes and activities undertaken in this area be grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1985), the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention, 2011), the Turkish Penal Code and Law No. 6284 on the Protection of the Family and Prevention of Violence against Women, and ILO Convention No. 190 on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment; ● That publishing houses add a clause to their copyright contracts with authors setting out their obligations to protect the author from gender-based violence and harassment.In the week of 8 March, International Women’s Day, we stress once again that we stand behind the words we spoke on 28 November: this struggle is essential, and we insist that it be taken seriously by every individual and institution.
On this occasion, we once again call on all women working in publishing: you are not alone – lend a hand to our struggle.
Happy International Women’s Day.
