KANBrief 1/25
European and international standards shape many areas of life. The world of work is no exception. A gender-responsive and inclusive approach to standardization is not only a question of equality, but also a consequence of social responsibility and the recognition that underlying conditions should be fair for everyone.
Work equipment, test methods, processes and services are designed for people. Many of the requirements set out in standards, particularly for machinery or personal protective equipment, are therefore based on the characteristics of their users. Failure to adapt work equipment or protective equipment to different body shapes and other criteria of the user population may lead to accidents and give rise to hazards and adverse stress. Human beings’ characteristics are not homogeneous, but vary greatly.
Traditionally, many technical standards in which people are addressed have tended to be male-oriented in their approach. This is reflected in the way products are designed and tested, as well as in the language used. Women’s anatomy and their physical abilities, in particular, may not be given adequate consideration. Gender-responsive standardization means that the needs of all genders are taken into account. Personal protective equipment for firefighters, for example, can provide the intended protection only if it makes allowance for gender-specific differences and assures a correct fit. A good example is DIN 14927 for firefighters’ positioning belts. In response to an initiative by the HFUK (the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the fire brigades in Germany’s northern region) and KAN, the sizes stated in this standard have been supplemented by a further class at either end of the range, thereby improving coverage of the breadth of body sizes occurring in the population.
Inclusive standardization goes a step further. It is intended to reflect the diversity of society and to take account of people with disabilities, older people and those of different ethnic, cultural and social backgrounds. Standards for barrier-free design are an important step towards inclusion, ensuring that public spaces and buildings are also accessible to people with mobility impairments. Likewise, work equipment should be designed such that ideally, it meets the needs of all employees. It may not be possible for all products to be designed to be fully inclusive. This should not, however, serve as an excuse for not even trying.
Several standards organizations have already taken initial steps, for example by setting up working groups to address issues of inclusion and equality. Various initiatives aim to promote diversity and inclusion in standards committees, implement gender-responsive language in standards, and launch surveys of data, for example anthropometric data of different population groups.
In 2023, the European Commission reviewed 2,650 harmonized European standards with respect to the inclusiveness of the data on which they were based. The study found anthropometric data to be relevant in 36% of the standards. In 76 of these standards (around 3%), the lack of inclusiveness is sufficient to present a major risk to the safety and health of large sections of the population. The Commission’s view is therefore that these standards require urgent revision. For standards to take adequate account of human body measurements, however, the anthropometric data must be available for the relevant European population in all its diversity. The European Commission is therefore currently determining, in a follow-up project, what anthropometric data for adults is available and what data is still lacking.
CEN and CENELEC set up a joint technical committee in 2024 to address various horizontal topics relating to personal protective equipment (PPE). Here too, the results of the Commission’s study are of great importance. A working group addressing inclusive PPE has set itself the goal of developing a generic approach to the necessary revisions of the relevant standards governing PPE.
In 2017, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) published recommendations for gender-responsive standards (pdf). These recommendations also refer to Goal 5, “Gender Equality”, of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The recommendations include a declaration that can be signed by standards organizations as affirmation of their commitment in this area. The annex lists actions that can be used to achieve the declared intent. DIN and DKE have already signed the declaration.
CEN, CENELEC, ISO and IEC, too, have committed to contributing to meeting the UN sustainability goals. According to the ISO website, over 50 standards support sustainability Goal 5. These include ISO 53800, Guidelines for the promotion and implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The corresponding search at CEN/CENELEC identified 281 standards.
Standards bodies should take care to use inclusive and non-discriminatory language. To support this, ISO has published a list of alternatives to terms that are not inclusive or may be perceived as being pejorative.
Experts on the standards committees require continual training and raising of awareness, so as to remain conscious of the need to take diversity into account in the standards they develop. A shift towards gender-responsive and inclusive standardization requires not only structural adjustments, but also a cultural change in the world of standardization.
Katharina von Rymon Lipinski
vonRymonLipinski@KAN.de
Ronja Heydecke
Heydecke@kan.de