Equal Opportunities International

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report upon the “Diversity and equal opportunities” Special Interest Group of the Francophone Association of Research in Human Resource Management (AGRH), which held its first international conference on “Gender and diversity in organizations”, at the ESCPEAP European Management School in Paris in January 2009.

Design/methodology/approach – Equal opportunity and diversity management are relatively recent research fields in Continental Europe, and particularly in France, however there were 95 conference participants who attended two plenary sessions, four workshops and one round table.

Findings – Sub-themes were: diversity management and gender equality; Work-life practices and equality policies between women and men; gender stereotypes and management; and women's and men's careers. The workshops covered: diversity management and gender equity; work-life practices; women and men's careers; and social representations and stereotypes.

Originality/value – This paper provides an informative overview of the conference which was original in being co-sponsored by The Emilie du Chatelet Institute – the first research network for developing and publishing research on women, sex and gender in France. The co-sponsor was the IAE Gustave Eiffel (Business studies department of the Paris 12 University).