On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women worldwide while recognising the ongoing efforts needed to achieve gender equality. This year’s theme, Accelerate Action, highlights the need to implement effective measures to close gender gaps across all sectors. You may not know that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) plays a role in this mission by providing structured and globally recognised frameworks for embedding gender equality in organisations and industries. ISO aligns this work with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls. Through dedicated standards, strategic initiatives, and the ISO Gender Action Plan, ISO is driving tangible progress toward a more equitable future.
ISO Standards Supporting Gender Equality
ISO has developed and continues to refine standards that promote gender equality across different sectors. These standards establish frameworks for organisations to create equitable workplaces, reduce discrimination, and ensure inclusive participation. Some of the key standards include:
ISO 53800:2024 provides comprehensive guidelines for organisations seeking to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. The standard offers actionable steps for creating inclusive workplace cultures where gender-based discrimination is addressed, and equal opportunities are available for all employees, regardless of gender. By offering structured guidance on how to empower women in leadership roles, address gender pay gaps, and foster diversity, ISO is equipping organisations with the tools to accelerate gender equality.
This standard focuses on diversity and inclusion within human resources management. It provides a framework for organisations to develop practices that promote diversity and ensure that people from all backgrounds, including women, are treated equitably. By implementing ISO 30415, organisations can create policies encouraging equal opportunity, professional development, and representation of women at all levels, especially in leadership and decision-making roles. This standard directly supports SDG 5 by fostering an inclusive, supportive environment for women.
This broad-reaching standard provides guidance on social responsibility, including gender equality as a core principle. It encourages organisations to establish ethical business practices that empower women, ensure equal pay for equal work, and address gender-based discrimination. It also promotes policies that support work-life balance, which is critical in achieving equitable workplaces.
This standard focuses on mental health and psychological safety in the workplace. Given that gender disparities often influence workplace stress, discrimination, and harassment, ISO 45003 provides organisations with frameworks to recognise and mitigate psychosocial risks. It ensures that gender-related workplace concerns, such as bias, harassment, and work-related stressors affecting women disproportionately, are effectively addressed. It can also help organisations to meet other legislative requirements, such as Australia’s Respect@Work Act, by providing a framework to understand the compliance obligations relating to psychosocial risk and implement plans and actions to address these.
5.ISO 37301:2021 – Compliance Management Systems
This standard helps organisations establish frameworks to ensure compliance with ethical and legal requirements, including gender equality regulations. By embedding compliance structures that align with international gender equity commitments, organisations can prevent discrimination, enforce equal pay policies, and create fair and transparent recruitment processes.
This standard, currently under development, is intended to guide organisations with remote workers to promote their health and safety, as well as work-life balance. It is intended for those workers who perform remote work regularly (e.g., fly-in fly-out workers, sustained work-from-home arrangements), rather than ad hoc offsite work or business trips. With the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey Data showing women are more likely to work from home than men, this standard should help set a framework for better work-from-home conditions for all. It has had its second working draft study initiated and is open to comments from the working group and technical committee.
This standard is currently at the committee draft stage, with comments on the current CD having closed in November 2024. It will provide guidance on developing policies and practices that are supportive of the menstruation, menstrual health and peri/menopause experiences of employees in the workplace.
These standards serve as powerful tools for businesses, governments, and institutions to embed gender equality into their policies and daily operations, thereby accelerating progress toward a more inclusive future.
ISO’s Commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
ISO actively supports the UN SDGs, particularly SDG 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls, by developing standards that empower women in the workforce, enhance safety, and promote fair and equal treatment. By embedding gender equality principles in global standards, ISO helps organisations align with SDG 5’s targets, including:
- Eliminating discrimination: ISO standards encourage businesses to adopt equitable hiring and pay practices.
- Ensuring women’s full participation in leadership: Standards such as ISO 30415 foster environments where women can thrive in leadership roles.
- Recognising and valuing unpaid work: ISO promotes work-life balance, recognising the disproportionate burden of unpaid labour on women.
By integrating these objectives into standardisation efforts, ISO is driving systematic change at an international scale.
The ISO Gender Action Plan: Driving Systemic Change
ISO’s commitment to gender equality goes beyond individual standards. The ISO Gender Action Plan, launched to ensure equitable participation in standards development, is a pivotal initiative accelerating progress. This plan focuses on:
- Increasing the participation of women in standardisation: It is estimated that only 10% of standards development experts are women. By encouraging more women to participate in developing international standards, ISO ensures diverse perspectives are included in decision-making processes.
- Mainstreaming gender into the standards development process: aiming for an inclusive standardisation system similar to what the Standards Council of Canada is doing with their Gender Standardization Strategy.
- Developing standards in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment: promoting equal opportunity and ensuring that standards consider gender-based differences in safety, usability, and accessibility.
- Raising awareness on standards in support of gender equality as the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is aiming to do with the Gender Responsive Standards Initiative.
The Gender Action Plan aligns with ISO’s Strategy 2030 Goal 3 – All Voices Heard that states they must listen to all voices, both in the development of standards and when making organisational decisions.
Accelerating Action for Gender Equality
As we look to the future, standards can help build a world where gender equality is the norm, not an aspiration. ISO’s commitment to developing gender-inclusive standards, fostering diversity in decision-making, and actively working to eliminate systemic barriers is a testament to its dedication to accelerating action.
On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate the progress made and acknowledge the work yet to be done. Through collaboration, awareness, and implementation of inclusive standards, we can all contribute to building a more equitable world – one where women and men have equal opportunities to thrive.
How can your organisation contribute? Start by adopting ISO standards that support gender equality, participating in standardisation efforts, and advocating for inclusive workplace policies. By working collectively and embracing inclusive standards, we can drive meaningful change toward a more equitable future.
