Five years of gender parity momentum

It’s been five years since SCC signed the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Declaration on Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development on behalf of Canada. This declaration was meant to formalize our commitment to contributing to the development of inclusive standards. 
 

Having standards that benefit everyone is not just a lofty goal, it is essential for this country, now more than ever. In addition to ensuring safety and quality, standards are tied to increased labour productivity and economic growth. Standards enable both national and international trade, allowing for cross-border exchange of both workers and goods. 
 

Standards are created by people who bring to the table not only incredible expertise but also experience and perspectives that may or may not address the needs of everyone. To ensure that standards are equally effective for all genders, we must encourage committees to address the gender gap in standardization.
 

To demonstrate our commitment to this cause, we developed a strategy and a workplan aimed at improving gender representation in standards development, building gender expertise within the standardization system, and contributing sound research on the topic. We are very proud of the strides we have made.
 

We have assessed the gender composition of our mirror committees, mapping them to sectors to compare our committees to the labour force from which our experts are drawn. We have worked to improve representation, and the number of women participating on these committees have slowly gone up. 
 

In collaboration with other international experts, we have helped build gender expertise into the standardization system by leading the development of important guidance, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe WP.6 Gender-Responsive Standards; Gender Responsive Standards: Guidance for ISO and IEC technical committees; and the new International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Guidance for National Committees: Improving Gender Diversity in Standards Development. We have engaged with our accredited standards development organizations to share this guidance and encourage uptake. And we now outline gender considerations as a requirement in the Requirements and Guidance documents for the accreditation of these organizations.
 

We continue to contribute important research to the conversation, starting with When One Size Does Not Protect All: Understanding Why Gender Matters for Standardization and the recent Understanding the Relationship Between the Gender Composition of Technical Committees and Performance. 
 

So where do we go from here? We need to hold strong and press ahead. It is important to continue to support initiatives that aim to close the gender gap, to participate in discussions, and to hold leaders accountable for their commitments. We need to engage all genders, because it is not an issue that rests with women alone, and it will take more than women to address it. Gender parity takes concerted, continuous effort from everyone to achieve and to maintain. We need to ensure that as the standardization system advances, it advances for the benefit of all.