The Declaration commits signatories to create and implement gender action plans (GAP) to support more gender-balanced and inclusive standards development processes, as well as to strengthen the gender responsiveness of standards themselves.
Just a few months after signing, the ISO Council approved the Gender Action Plan 2019-2021, which sets out initiatives and establishes ambitious goals towards supporting gender equality in standardization.
As part of its GAP, ISO has launched the Gender Focal Point Network. This platform helps share knowledge and best practice between our global members, 48 of whom are also signatories to the Declaration.
The importance of gender equality in standardization, and ISO’s work in the Gender Action Plan, is explained in this video, which we’ve also shared on our social channels.
To continue to build on our progress over the last year, we will implement effective monitoring towards the long-term objectives defined in the GAP. To this end, ISO is working to collect data on gender representation in standardization work, which will help establish a baseline and better understand the scale of the challenges.
If you have any questions or would like to assist ISO in its efforts, please send an e-mail to gender@iso.org.