IWIB Learn & Lunch Session on Global definition of women-owned business

In 2020, The Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) invited all interested stakeholders to join the development of an ISO International Workshop Agreement (IWA) on how to define a "woman-owned business". By developing a commonly agreed upon definition, SIS aims to lower entry barriers for women business owners to public and private procurement opportunities, and increase their access to capacity‐building programmes, incentives schemes and certification programmes.

In total, more that 350 experts from 77 countries registered to the process leading up the publication of IWA 34 Women’s Entrepreneurship – Key definitions and general criteria on March 8th 2021.

This IWA provides a definition of a woman‐owned business and other key definitions related to women’s entrepreneurship as well as sets criteria on central elements of these definitions in order to help businesses, statistical agencies, governments and international initiatives in their work.

Creating these definitions will allow for clear and targeted efforts in advancing women’s economic empowerment and will contribute to the overall achievement of the 2030 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, including several gender specific targets under SDG 5 on Gender Equality.

In the long term, the development of this IWA may spur a broader discussion and additional efforts towards further standardisation work on gender equality and related topics. Over time, standard definitions will facilitate the collection of internationally comparable data on women’s entrepreneurship and the impact on local and national economies.

Maria is an experienced Project Manager with over 11 years working for The Swedish Institute For Standards.  She has been involved in the development of international standards like the ISO/PC 248/WG 3 Sustainability criteria for bioenergy - Environmental, social and economic aspects; CEN/TC 411/WG 4 Biobased products - Sustainability criteria, LCA and related issues, just to mention few.

Welcome! 

IWIB Team