Gender Equality
Business Case
Brand reputation
Innovation and adaptability
Legal and regulatory compliance
Productivity and quality
Stable sourcing communities and sustainable livelihoods
Strategy & Planning
Assessment
Identify procurement categories and sourcing regions where supplier workforces may face risk of gender inequality, based on sectors with significant gender-based workforce segmentation, low female representation or regions with weak protections for women workers.
Conduct detailed assessment of gender equality practices across suppliers in priority categories, identifying gaps in areas such as equal pay for work of equal value, women in leadership, parental leave, work-life balance, anti-harassment and anti-violence protections and grievance mechanisms.
Identify gaps in gender equality monitoring across the supplier portfolio and develop action plans to address unmonitored categories, regions or supplier groups, with multi‑year risk forecasting of gender-equality risks.
Policy
Define and adopt a definition of gender-responsive suppliers, aligned with recognized international standards and establish expectations for supplier gender equality practices in the supplier code of conduct.
Require suppliers to demonstrate progress on gender equality, including equal pay for work of equal value, equal opportunity in recruitment and promotion, anti-harassment and anti-violence protections and work life balance policies such as parental leave.
While focusing on remediation before termination decisions are made, establish a gender-equality escalation protocol with:
- trigger criteria (verified gender-based discrimination incidents, persistent gender pay gaps with no corrective action, retaliation against complaints)
- defined consequences for escalated cases
Require suppliers to:
- implement their own gender equality due diligence processes based on defined due‑diligence quality requirements
- monitor gender equality outcomes across their workforce
- cascade gender equality requirements to their own suppliers
Targets
Set targets for percentage of suppliers or spend with suppliers with gender equality policies and confidential grievance mechanisms for gender-based discrimination and harassment.
Set targets for percentage of high-risk suppliers assessed on gender equality practices.
Set targets for all medium and high risk suppliers to be assessed on relevant gender equality practices.
Supplier Selection
Screening
Add gender equality questions to supplier pre-qualification and RFPs, such as:
- gender equality and anti-harassment policies
- grievance mechanism for gender-based discrimination and harassment
- any history of gender-related findings or legal actions
Request information on:
- gender balance of employees, senior management and board members
- equal opportunity policies in pay
- gender equality in recruitment, promotion and career opportunities
- established confidential grievance, resolution, reporting and non-retaliation mechanism and procedure to address and respond to incidents of violence and harassment
- work-life balance policy, parental leave and protection of female workers to support pregnancy and/or maternity-based against discrimination, as well as retention of both women and men full-time employees who take parental leave
Require the following for suppliers to submit a response to RFP:
- be signatories of United Nations Women Empowerment Principles
- provide independent verification of gender‑equality data (e.g., third‑party audits or certification bodies)
- share multi‑year gender‑equality performance trends
Selection
Give preference to suppliers demonstrating commitment to gender equality, such as WEPs signatory status, evidence of women in management positions or active gender equality initiatives beyond basic policy.
Allocate points in selection criteria for demonstrating the following:
- comprehensive compliance with international labour standards of the ILO, including the Core Labour Standards
- actively embracing the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
- policy and actions showing genuine dedication to fostering an environment that promotes gender equality, respects human rights and encourages equal participation of women at all levels of the supplier's organization
Allocate point in selection criteria for demonstrating:
- certifications related to gender responsive practices
- gender pay gap data and action plans
- supplier's own gender-responsive supplier practices within their supply chain
Contracts
Include clauses requiring suppliers to maintain effective gender equality policies and grievance mechanisms.
Require suppliers to notify the buyer of material incidents related to discrimination, harassment or labour violations and demonstrate corrective action where applicable.
Include contractual clauses requiring data on gender equality metrics and remediation plans if targets are not met and require suppliers to cascade gender equality requirements to their own suppliers.
Supplier Engagement
Goal Setting
Communicate commitment to gender-responsive procurement and equal opportunity to suppliers, as well as set goals for pilot group of suppliers to achieve gender-equality across the following categories:
- gender balance of employees, senior management and board members
- equal pay for work of equal value
- gender equality in recruitment, promotion and career opportunities
- established confidential grievance, resolution, reporting and non-retaliation mechanism and procedure to address and respond to incidents of violence and harassment
- policy for parental leave and protection of female workers to support pregnancy and/or maternity-based against discrimination, as well as retention of both women and men full-time employees who take parental leave
Expand to establish joint gender equality improvement plans with strategic suppliers, including targets and timelines, such as improvements in gender balance, equal pay for work of equal value, women in leadership and grievance mechanism effectiveness.
Set goals with suppliers to address and fill the gaps identified in the intermediate step over a period of time and create roadmap for it; subsequently implementing gender equality requirements within their own supply chains, including monitoring gender equality practices among their own suppliers.
Capacity Building
Provide training or resources to suppliers on:
- understanding and signing the Women's Empowerment Principles
- implementing gender equality policies (equal pay for work of equal value, parental leave, anti-harassment)
- meeting ILO Core Labour Standards
- establishing grievance mechanisms for discrimination and harassment
Provide deeper training to suppliers on implementing specific practices (conducting audits on equal pay for work of equal value, designing grievance mechanisms, removing bias in recruitment) and share the required calculation methodologies, templates and toolkits to address behavioural bottlenecks.
Host gender equality training accessible to suppliers across the supply chain.
Data
Support suppliers (advisory, capacity building, gap analysis) with obtaining baseline gender equality on the following categories:
- gender balance of employees, senior management and board members
- equal pay for work of equal value
- gender equality in recruitment, promotion and career opportunities
- established confidential grievance, resolution, reporting and non-retaliation mechanism and procedure to address and respond to incidents of violence and harassment
- policy for parental leave and protection of female workers to support pregnancy and/or maternity-based against discrimination, as well as retention of both women and men full-time employees who take parental leave
Support suppliers in developing structured systems to track gender equality indicators such as equal pay for work of equal value, complaint data, investigation outcomes and workforce composition by gender across all levels, as well as a tracking of root‑cause analysis for gender-based findings.
Support suppliers with tracking gender equality metrics across their own supply chains, including workforce composition, data on equal pay for work of equal value and grievance mechanism effectiveness, with independent annual verification of supplier gender‑equality data.
Certifications
Support suppliers in obtaining WEPs signatory status.
Support suppliers in achieving third-party gender equality certification such as EDGE or equivalent.
Require third-party gender equality certification or WEP engagement for strategic suppliers and support their suppliers in achieving WEPs signatory status or equivalent commitments.
Advisory
Provide guidance to suppliers on establishing a gender equality program, including key components (policy, data collection, grievance mechanisms, leadership commitment).
Provide technical guidance to suppliers on implementing specific gender equality practices such as analyses on equal pay for work of equal value, bias-free recruitment processes and effective parental leave policies.
Consult and work with suppliers in creating a roadmap and overcoming psychological, social and behavioural biases and embedding gender equality due diligence and supplier engagement into their own procurement practices, including developing their own supplier codes, screening processes and engagement programs on gender equality.
Financial Support
Sponsor gender equality certifications / trainings or offer small financial incentives or bonuses for suppliers that achieve initial gender equality milestones.
Offer preferential payment terms or early payment options for suppliers demonstrating progress on gender equality commitments.
Link commercial incentives (contract extensions, volume increases, pricing adjustments) to verified progress on gender equality across the supplier's own supply chain.
Audits
Require suppliers to complete self-assessment questionnaires on gender equality practices covering workforce composition, equal pay for work of equal value, recruitment, promotion, grievance mechanisms and parental leave.
Require and support a select group of high-risk suppliers to have certified third-party social audits, which include gender equality in the workforce with evidence from worker-voice mechanisms (worker interviews, assessment surveys).
Work with strategic suppliers to review the analysis results/gaps achieved by suppliers and conduct their own supplier audits on gender equality and share audit findings.
Project Partnerships & Innovation
Launch pilot projects with suppliers to test practical gender equality interventions in priority categories, such as women in leadership programs, bias-free recruitment processes or workplace safety improvements for women workers.
Partner with topic-specific organizations or gender equality experts to develop supplier training programs and toolkits.
Lead industry coalitions with suppliers, women's organizations and sector peers to drive systemic change on gender equality across shared supply chains, such as establishing industry-wide standards for gender equality reporting or co-funding research on gender barriers in specific sectors.
Continuous Improvement
Metrics
Track percentage of suppliers that have gender equality policies and practices in place, are WEPs signatories and have functioning grievance mechanisms for gender-based discrimination and harassment.
Track aggregated supplier progress on gender equality indicators such as:
- number and recurrence of gender-related findings in supplier assessments, including repeated issues in pay equity, promotion or harassment
- percentage of suppliers with active gender equality improvement plans
- completion rates and quality of agreed gender equality corrective actions to ensure structural fixes rather than superficial responses
- trends in grievance mechanism usage and resolution outcomes
- track timeliness and quality of corrective‑action closure
Track percentage of suppliers demonstrating year-on-year improvement in gender equality indicators.
Scorecards
Introduce basic gender criteria into yearly supplier evaluation forms, starting from onboarding, including gender equality commitments and checklist for existence of basic policies (anti-harassment, non-discrimination).
Include gender-responsive procurement metrics such as the below in category business reviews and apply differentiated consequences (required remediation plans, targeted technical support) for repeatedly low‑scoring suppliers:
- supplier gender balance (workforce and management)
- existence of analysis on equal pay for work of equal value
- parental leave policies
- grievance mechanisms
Weigh gender performance in supplier scorecards, with top performers receiving preferential weighting in tenders and bottom performers required to submit improvement plans.
Impact Verification
Gather feedback from suppliers on effectiveness of supplier engagement programs on gender equality.
Assess whether supplier engagement initiatives are improving gender equality outcomes across the supplier base, including verification through worker-voice mechanisms.
Measure improvement in supplier gender equality outcomes attributable to engagement programs, such as increase in women in leadership, pay gap closure and grievance mechanism effectiveness.
Sources consulted
- https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/Procurements-strategic-valu…
- https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2017/3/the-power-of-pro…
- https://www.weps.org/resource/gender-responsive-procurement
- https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/gender-responsive-procureme…
- https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/Guidance-note-Building-gend…
- https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/tools-methods/gender-responsive-pub…
- https://sustainableprocurement.unglobalcompact.org/gender-equality-at-work
- https://www.ilo.org/topics-and-sectors/gender-equality