20-22 February 1998, Ankara 

After a preparatory phase of nearly one year, the congress was held on 20-22 February 1998 and the aims were defined as follows:

• To define and express the problems of the women at KESK;
• To develop suggestions for a solution;
• To sensitize the unions to the problems of KESK women.

                                
Within a year when the preparations were made, training activities, panels and events were organized, and papers were written in the unions affiliated to KESK. The prepared papers were discussed at the congress, and action strategies and plans were prepared.

The main discussion themes of the congress were:

• Women in working life
• Employment policies and women
• Women in the struggle for unions, women in the struggle for KESK, ‘positive’ discrimination and quota
• Militarism and sexism
• Political Islam and women

The demands that came to the fore in the final declaration of the congress were;

• Increasing maternity leaves and counting unpaid leave after birth from retirement,
• Dividing postnatal leave as parental leave, opening of kindergartens and day care homes and/or increasing the number of them,
• The abolition of the dress code that prohibits women from wearing trousers at the workplace,
• Taking precautions regarding sexual harassment in the workplace,
• Fighting against privatization.

These demands formed the main source of gender equality policies under the umbrella of KESK and determined the roadmap.