A practical guide to launching your gender equality initiative

AFNOR Spec X30-020 is a guide to best practices for advancing gender equality in all organizations. Available free of charge, it is a document with international ambitions. 

In France, gender equality has been declared a major cause for the five-year term. In 2019, the French presidency of the G7 obtained the label Major event promoting gender equality for the organization of the Biarritz summit in August. The repercussions of this summit highlighted the need to develop practical tools that are accessible to all economic actors. Their goal is to move toward excellence in this area by using a common language and methods. 

It is in this spirit that AFNOR is publishing AFNOR Spec X30-020, a guide to best practices for advancing gender equality in all associations, companies, and communities. The project, placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, was led by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, and the Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Recovery, with the support of PwC and the National Federation of Savings Banks. Forty stakeholders from all walks of life also got involved.

AFNOR Spec X30-020: a document that foreshadows an ISO standard

Presented at the Generation Equality Forum on July 1, 2021, in Paris, this guide is a first step toward the standardization work that should now begin at the international level to make it an ISO standard. It addresses five themes:

• Access to education and training;
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• Prevention and cessation of violence against women and girls;
• Women's and girls' rights, prevention and combating gender-based discrimination;
• Women's economic empowerment and participation in public and economic life.

These topics are addressed through an organizational approach that can be applied to any type of organization, public or private, wishing to integrate gender equality across all its areas of activity in a cross-cutting and specific manner.

The guide provides keys to enable everyone to assess their organization, advice on how to improve, and, above all, it is illustrated with numerous examples of initiatives. This guide is easy to use and read, and truly adaptable to everyone.

Watch the video presentation of two of the organizations that participated in drafting the guide: Cédric Turini (CSR Manager at the National Federation of Savings Banks) and Mireille Pequignot (Director of Halte Discriminations).