01 — BELIEVE
Believe women.
Listen without automatically minimising, dismissing or explaining away what a woman says is happening to her body, health or ability to work.
The Women Working Well Global Charter
A shared standard for a healthier working world.
The Global Charter sets out the principles we believe should guide how women's health is understood and supported at work — across countries, industries, roles and stages of life.
A working world where women do not have to sacrifice their health, dignity, livelihood or career simply to be heard.
Why a Global Charter?
Because women's health does not stop at the workplace door — and workplace support should not begin only after a diagnosis.
Women may be working through symptoms, investigation, treatment, recovery, uncertainty or a diagnosis that has taken years to reach. What happens around them during that time can shape whether they remain connected to work, feel safe asking for help, or begin to doubt their own experience.
The Charter is not a clinical standard, a certification scheme or a promise that every workplace can solve every problem. It is a shared set of principles for how women can be met with dignity, curiosity, fairness and practical support.
Support should not depend on a diagnosis.
A woman should not need a perfect label, a complete explanation or years of medical evidence before her experience is treated as real.
Building the bridge
From women's experience to workplace understanding and action.
Women Working Well does not force the conversation. It helps a woman become ready for it — and helps the workplace become ready to receive it.
Seven shared commitments
What good can look like.
These principles are intentionally broad enough to travel across borders, sectors and different workplace systems, while remaining grounded in the human experience of health and work.
02 — RECOGNISE
Recognise that health and work intersect.
Health can affect concentration, energy, attendance, mobility, confidence, communication, performance and the ability to remain in work. These impacts deserve thoughtful responses.
03 — MAKE ROOM FOR UNCERTAINTY
Support should not depend on a diagnosis.
Symptoms can be real long before the reason is known. Investigation can take time. Diagnoses can change. A workplace can respond to what a woman is experiencing now without requiring certainty she may not yet have.
04 — DIGNITY
Respond with dignity.
A request for support should not expose a woman to ridicule, exclusion, career damage, bullying, assumptions about capability or pressure to disclose more than is necessary.
05 — ADAPT
Design work that can adapt.
Where practicable, thoughtful flexibility, reasonable adjustments and good job design can help women remain connected to work while managing symptoms, treatment or recovery.
06 — RECEIVE
Equip the people receiving the conversation.
Managers and organisations need the confidence, knowledge and systems to respond well — without requiring them to become clinicians or experts in every health condition.
07 — LEARN
Learn from women's experiences.
Workplace practice, healthcare, policy and research should be informed by evidence — including what women say helped, what caused harm and what was missing.
A Charter for everyone in the conversation
Different roles. A shared responsibility.
The Charter is not only for women experiencing health impacts. It is also for the people, systems and organisations around them.
FOR WOMEN
Your experience matters.
You do not have to wait for certainty before recognising that something is affecting your working life.
FOR MANAGERS
Receive the conversation well.
You do not need every answer. Listening, responding respectfully and exploring what could help is a meaningful beginning.
FOR ORGANISATIONS
Build systems that can respond.
Good intent is stronger when policies, job design, leadership capability and psychosocial safety support it.
FOR THE WIDER SYSTEM
Learn from the evidence.
Researchers, clinicians, advocates and policy makers can help connect women's lived experience with better systems and decisions.
A visible commitment
Supporting the Charter starts simply.
It is not about claiming perfection. It is about recognising the issue, choosing to support better responses and helping move the conversation forward.
I see this.
I recognise that women's health and working life intersect.
I support this.
I support women being heard, believed and treated with dignity.
I will help change this.
I will contribute to a working world better prepared to respond.
This cannot stay a private conversation.
Principles + evidence
The Charter says what we should work toward. The research asks what women are actually experiencing.
The Global Women and Work Study explores the connection between health, healthcare experiences and working life — including experiences where there may never have been a clear diagnosis.
HEALTH EXPERIENCE
HEALTHCARE JOURNEY
DIAGNOSIS / UNCERTAINTY
WORK IMPACT
WORKPLACE RESPONSE
EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES
WHAT HELPED
WHAT WAS MISSING
Women Working Well
See it. Support it. Help change it.
A healthier working world begins when women can speak about what is happening — and know the person or system receiving that conversation is ready to hear it.