G/TBT/GEN/309  
 
12 January 2021  
(21-0399) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade    
 
 
WORKSHOP ON THE ROLE OF GENDER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS  
8 DECEMBER  2020  
Moderator's Report1 
The Moderator of the Workshop on the Role of Gender in the Development of Standards  shall deliver  
this Report at the WTO TBT Committee's meeting of 24-26 February 2021 . 
 
_______________  
 
In the Eighth Triennial Review2 Members agreed to hold a workshop on the role of gender in the 
development of standards. The programme for the workshop is contained i n the Annex of this report. 
Please visit the dedicated webpage  for the presentations and the recording of the event.  
 
1  WTO MEMBERS' PERSPECTIVE, EXPERIENCES AND BEST PRACTICES ON INCLUDING 
GENDER CONSIDERATIONS IN STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT, AND HOW IT RELATES TO 
TRADE  
Ms Gabrielle White3 (Canada) mentioned that gender equality is important for the Canadian 
government, and that several initiatives have been undertaken to i mprove gender equality. At the 
Standards Council of Canada, an action plan has been developed and publicly released which takes 
into consideration the fact that standards are not neutral, they reflect the interests and values of 
the creators. Low participa tion of women, the speaker indicated, is problematic and there should be 
more awareness about this issue. She pointed to the example of PPE not being tailored to women 
while the large majority of workers in healthcare are women, linking the problem of 
underrepresentation of women in standardization to international trade.  
Ms Michelle P arkouda3(Canada) continued, providing examples and referring to her recent 
research which indicates the underrepresentation of women in standardization and broader research 
and policy making has dire consequences. Examples in the area of medical research, voice 
recognition, PPE and car accidents were mentioned to illustrate this. M s Parkouda also cited her 
research indicating that standards protect men better than women. She a lso provided numbers on 
the underrepresentation of women in standardization; while 48% of the workforce in Canada is 
female, the share of participation is standardizing organizations is a lot less. Including more women, 
Ms Parkouda pointed out, leads to be tter research and work performance, and that a minimum of 
30% of women is needed to avoid marginalization and improve performance.  
Ms White underscored that actions are underway, but a lot remains to be done. She referred 
to several possible actions in in cluded in the presentation slides. She concluded the presentation by 
highlighting that more inclusive standardization saves lives.  
Ms Jodi Scholtz4 (South Africa) presented the views of South Africa, referring to the national 
development plan and undersc oring the importance of inclusiveness in relation to women, youth and 
persons with disabilities. The gender aspect of the national plan, advancing women´s socio -economic 
 
1 H.E. Mr. Stephen de Boer, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO . This report 
is provided under his own responsibility.  
2 G/TBT/41 , para. 5.8.b.  
3 Standards Council  of Canada (SCC)  
4 South African Bureau of Standards (SABS)  G/TBT/GEN/309  
 
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  empowerment and promoting gender equality happens through (1)strategic leadership, (2) gender 
mainstreaming, (3) generating gender knowledge and analysis of policies and policy implementation, 
(4) monitoring and evaluation systems and (5) public participation though outreach and advocacy.  
In the presentation, Ms Scholtz focused more closely  on the work of SABS in the area of gender 
equality. The SABS work, she stated, encompasses three main areas: developing, promoting and 
maintaining South African National Standards, promoting quality with respect to commodities, 
products and services and p roviding CAPs. To do so, the SABS works together with other partner 
organizations in the government. The SABS action plan on gender equality  builds on the UNECE 
declaration on Gender Responsive Standards which the SABS signed in September 2019. It provides  
a practical framework for standards bodies, according to the presenter. Referring to the SGDs, Ms 
Scholtz listed three key areas of work included in the SABS action plan: Gender representation, 
gender responsiveness and outreach and advocacy. Ms Scholtz c ontinued the presentation by giving 
examples of standards taking into account the gender perspective, such as the SANS 511 on 
women´s workwear referring to dimensions specific to women. The benefits of a gender inclusive 
approach in standardization were di scussed, such as the effects on levelling the economic playing 
field, the competitiveness of companies and fit for purpose goods. In conclusion, Ms Scholtz pointed 
out that standardizing bodies should embrace diversity and inclusion in the development of 
standards.  
Mrs. Silvia Vaccaro5 (European Union) explained that while the European Commission does 
not develop standards the Commission does have a strong commitment towards gender equality. 
On 5 March 2020, the European Commission adopted a communication  repeating that Gender 
equality is a core value, a fundamental right and a key principle of the European pillar of social 
rights. Mrs. Vaccaro underlined that to reach its full potential, the EU must use all its talent and 
diversity in politics and society . Gender equality will also lead to more jobs and productivity. While 
the EU is a leader in this regard, she stated, no full equality has been reached and progress is slow. 
The presenter repeated that the European Commission does not make standards but fol lows the 
activities of the UNECE WP6 Gender -Responsive Standards Initiative and indicated that the CEN 
CENELEC and many EU national standardisation bodies have signed the UNECE declaration on 
Gender responsive standards.  
Ms Deborah Wautier6 (European Union) provided an overview of gender -related actions and 
discussion CEN -CENELEC are carrying out. CEN -CENELEC is, the presenter stated, an open and 
transparent network that supports development of high -quality standards. The network consists of 
43 members wh ich are national standardization bodies. Inclusiveness  is a key value for the 
organization as standards need to deliver to diverse needs, and therefore all stakeholders should be 
included in the development process. Gender equality is one aspect, but inclu siveness is a broader 
concept, the speaker explained, referring to other stakeholders as well.  
CEN-CENELEC had signed the UNECE declaration for Gender Responsive Standards in May 
2019, together with more than 20 members. Applying a bottom -up approach to i mplement the 
declaration, a survey was conducted among its members, of which the results served as a basis for 
an action plan. Ms Wautier referred to the slides where key results of the survey in terms of good 
practices and challenges were listed. The acti on plan, she explained, consisted of targeted actions, 
spread over a 3 -year agile plan with a focus on sharing information and collaboration, enabling global 
cooperation. The action plan was approved in November 2019. One of the first -year outcomes was 
the setting up of an informal Gender Coordination Group, open to all CEN -CENELEC members and 
serves to set up activities to raise awareness. Currently, 12 members have joined. In addition, the 
presenter mentioned several other activities that are being carrie d out in parallel with the action 
plan, such as Women4Cyber and the WeClub. In conclusion, the presenter indicated steps in the 
right direction are being taken by the whole standardization community.  
2  WORK AND ACTIVITIES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON THE SUBJECT  
Ms Judith Fessehaie7 (ITC) presented insights on standards and gender drawn from ITC’s 
SheTrades Initiative. She began by providing an overview of the SheTrades Initiative , which aims to 
connect 3 million women entrepreneurs and women -owned businesses to international markets by 
 
5 Directorate -General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission  
6 CEN-CENELEC  
7 Policy and Data Lead, ITC.  G/TBT/GEN/309  
 
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  2021. The Initiative, which was launched in 2015, works with governments, corporations and 
business support organizations to undertake research, shape enabling trade policies and regulations, 
facilitate financing and expand access to public tenders and corporate supply chains. She then 
highlighted three main areas of work in the initiative in relation to standards and gender: supporting 
women -owned businesses' co mpliance to standards, supporting women's participation in trade policy 
design and implementation and developing an ISO international workshop agreement for women in 
trade.  
With regards to compliance with standards, the presentation provided findings on t he 
challenges faced by women in complying with standards, which include limited awareness of 
knowledge in selecting the right standards, lack of finance, technical capacity, language and human 
resources, among others. Based on an example from the African C ontinental Free Trade Area, she 
also highlighted the key opportunities and recommendations on standards which would increase 
women -owned businesses' compliance with standards as well as their participation in trade policy 
design and implementation. Finally , she elaborated on a key issue presented by the lack of a 
universally agreed upon definition(s) of women -owned/ -led businesses as well as the progress that 
the ISO International Workshop Agreement 34 on definition(s) of women's entrepreneurship jointly 
developed with the Swedish Institute of Standards is making on that front.  
Mr. Mika Vepsalainen8 (UNECE) provided an overview of UNECE's work on gender 
responsiveness in standards and standardization. To this end, he provided a background on the 
Gender Resp onsive Standards Initiative (GRSI), launched by UNECE, which aims to strengthen the 
use of standards and technical regulations as powerful tools to attain SDG 59, integrate a gender 
lens in the development of both standards and technical regulations, and elaborate gender indicators 
and criteria that could be used in standards development. To do so, the initiative developed the 
Declaration on Gender Responsive Standards whereby signatories (which consist mainly of standards 
bodies) pledge to create and impl ement gender action plans in order to support more gender -
balanced and inclusive standards development processes, and to strengthen the gender -
responsiveness of standards themselves.  
The Initiative also provides awareness -raising resources and sessions, in cluding, for example, 
the various GRSI expert working groups, an open platform repository on gender responsive 
standards, and the UNECE portal on standards for SDGs. In the future, the Initiative has a few 
projects in the pipeline including launching an e -learning training platform, mapping standards to 
SDG 5, establishing standards body gender focal points, and providing gender -responsivity trainings.  
3  REAL -WORLD EXAMPLES OF HOW GENDER CONSIDERATIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN INTO 
ACCOUNT IN STANDARDS  DEVELOPMENT  
Prof. Astrid Linder10 (Sweden)  discussed the importance of gender considerations in the 
development of standards in relation to car safety. At the outset, she highlighted her vision that by 
2030, injury protection performances of new cars would be assessed bo th for women and men. She 
explained that a glimpse at the current research would show that the data for this initiative to happen 
is readily available, and that it is a matter of deciding to use this data. The presentation provided 
several statistics and f igures with regards to traffic safety, noting that 1.35 million deaths occur 
annually due to traffic accidents, and that women are more at risk compared to men of serious 
injuries and fatalities given same crash severities. She then described the various p rotection 
performances conducted for vehicles, noting that standards of such performances are not targeted 
towards females insomuch as they are for males.  
In addition, the presentation outlined the models of the occupant in legislative vehicle safety 
tests to demonstrate that in the various tests, the main passenger model is an average male, and 
that under no considerations are females included as part of th e testing population. She also 
highlighted certain provisions of The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which state 
that all activities should aim to eliminate inequalities between men and women and that gender 
equality perspectives should be applied to any planned policy actions, including legislation. 
Furthermore, the lack of the female part of the population (the average female) represented in crash 
tests dummies was displayed. She showed, from recent research, that the data to make models o f 
 
8 Chief, Market Access Section, Economic Cooperation and Trade Division, UNECE . 
9 SDG 5: "Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all Women and Girls".  
10 Research Director, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute . G/TBT/GEN/309  
 
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  the average female is available. To this end, she noted a gap between the law and the regulatory 
tests conducted in practice in Europe.  
4  COMMENTS BY THE MODERATOR  
In his capacity as Moderator , Ambassador de Boer  (Canada) noted the current  momentum 
to further the work on gender -responsive standards. What was an emerging issue in 2017 -2018 has 
now become an issue of interest to many WTO Members, international organizations, and private 
sector stakeholders. The COVID -19 pand emic further shed a light on the importance of gender in 
the development of standards. For example, women represent 70% of healthcare workers, and 
everyday their safety rests on their personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, protective 
glasses…). This  equipment is produced in compliance with standards that currently fail to consider 
biological differences, leaving women at greater risk of exposure. Ambassador de Boer further 
stressed that although the workshop allowed for substantive and constructive c ontributions to this 
important topic, additional work still needs to be carried out in the context of the TBT Committee 
and the new WTO Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender  
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  G/TBT/GEN/309  
 
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  ANNEX  
 
WORKSHOP ON THE ROLE OF GENDER IN THE DEVELOPMENT O F STANDARDS  
8 DECEMBER  2020, STARTING AT 4.00 PM  
Programme  
In the Eighth Triennial Review Members agreed to hold a workshop on the role of gender in the 
development of standards. This workshop will take place virtually on Zoom. Interpretation will be 
provided in English, French and Spanish. Please register  to participate in the event.   
 
_______________  
 
 
The workshop will be  moderated by:  H.E. Mr. Stephen de Boer, Ambassador, Permanent 
Representative of Canada to the WTO  
 
Panel  1: WTO Members' perspective, experiences and best practices on including gender 
considerations in standards development, and how it relates to trade  
• Ms Gabrielle White and Ms Michelle Parkouda, Standards Council of Canada (SCC)  
• Ms Jodi Scholtz, Towards gender equality: a developing country perspective , South African 
Bureau of Standards (SABS)  
• Gender consideration in the EU , Ms Silvia Vaccaro , Directorate -General for Internal 
Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission  
• Gender and standards initiative in European standardisation,  Ms Deborah Wautier, 
CEN-CENELEC  
Panel 2: Work and activities of international organizations on the subject  
• The Women and Trade Programme , Ms Judith Fessehaie, Trade and Development 
Manager, ITC  
 
• The Gender -Responsive Standards Initiative , Mr. Mika Vepsalainen, Chief of Market access 
section, UNECE  
Panel 3: Real -world examples of how gender considerations have been taken into account 
in standards development  
• Gender Responsive Standards and Car Safety , Ms Astrid Linder, Research Director, 
Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute  
 
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