Wendy Anderson - ny ordförande för SIS/TK 629 Mensprodukter

Menstrual health currently lacks global standards, creating barriers to safe and affordable products. As new chair of the Swedish committee for menstrual products, Wendy Anderson contributes together with the Swedish committee to the development of the first ISO standard for this, ensuring quality and equity worldwide.

What is your background and experience in Standardization?

I am a philanthropist and co-founder of The Case for Her, a Swedish non-profit that uses a blended-finance approach to seed under-funded areas of women’s health. Our menstrual health portfolio is the largest and most developed, covering grants and investments across the entire menstrual health ecosystem — research, metrics, products, advocacy, community-building organizations and even innovative finance models.

At The Case for Her, we view the lack of consumer product standards as a significant barrier to both the health of menstruators and the success of manufacturers in providing safe, affordable product across the globe and have been one of the financial supporters of SIS as the global secretariat for this work. I have no past experience with standards but am very excited to step into the role of Chair for SIS TK 629.

What was critical for your decision to lead the committee?
It was an opportunity to learn the work directly, and to understand what issues the project is facing in developing the worlds’s first ISO standard for menstrual products.
There’s no better way to learn than to do - and with the support of the SIS staff & with the participatory and supportive atmosphere of the Swedish committee and the broader community, I feel I can both learn and contribute successfully.

What goals do you have and how will the committee’s work change under your leadership?
We all want to develop a functional framework for menstrual product safety within the timeframe that we have and my goal is to ensure the Swedish delegation contributes successfully to the process.

Right now, I’m getting settled and getting to know both the tools and the procedures. I’m looking forward to the SIS workshop in early December (Leda standardisering - utveckla ditt ledarskap) and to learning from my fellow committee members where they think support and action is needed as a way of informing my own plans on how to best serve the group.

For more information please contact Ulrike Ryll, project manager for SIS/TK 629 Mensprodukter.