Purpose: Over the past decade, the City of Strasbourg has actively promoted a policy on women’s rights and gender equality, aiming to change attitudes, particularly through the means of language. Strasbourg has therefore adopted gender-neutral institutional communication, using a variety of tools available to its staff.
Stimulus/Rationale: In order to promote a culture of equality within the local authority and to eliminate gender stereotypes from administrative documents, the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Department began in 2012 to raise awareness among internal and external communicators about the perpetuation of stereotypes in written documents. Following the adoption of a third action plan for women’s rights and gender equality in 2022 (Objective 1: Ensure professional equality between women and men within the administration; Point 6: Combat discrimination and promote gender diversity in jobs and responsibilities), a detailed and practical introduction to inclusive writing was proposed to facilitate its use by all staff. Since 2016, the rules and practices of inclusive writing have evolved to modernise and harmonise previous recommendations. The main change is the use of the dash instead of the hyphen, in line with the latest guidelines of the French High Council for Equality.
Process: In order to introduce these measures effectively to its staff, the Strasbourg office is taking action on several complementary fronts:
- Training for all staff in inclusive writing, both in written documents and in the city’s communication campaigns.
- Distribution of an online summary guide to the use of inclusive writing in its various forms.
- Production of a summary poster to highlight good practice in departments.
- Reconfiguration of all keyboards by the IT department to make it easier to use the mid-point through shortcuts.
Impact: Studies have shown that inclusive writing has several positive effects: job advertisements that are not written in the generic masculine form attract more female applicants, non-sexist press releases appeal to young audiences and, ultimately, strengthen the shared culture of equality within organisations. In 2023, 24 two-hour training sessions were offered to all 7 000 staff, as well as 2 six-hour sessions for communicators. According to the 2023 Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Mission Report, a total of 450 staff received training in inclusive writing. This initial momentum is now being reinforced by a number of other initiatives, such as continuing the training courses offered in 2023 and developing access to these topics on the City’s intranet.
Key reference documents:
3rd Action Plan for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, 2024-2026:
https://www.strasbourg.eu/documents/976405/1439068/3e-Plan-action.pdf/bab8489d-8c25-ecb0-54da-47abc410d4f9?t=1646743090597
Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Mission:
https://www.strasbourg.eu/droits-femmes-egalite-genre
