"I think that what is really important on this journey is to understand when we talk about gender and intersectional equity - and yes, gender is that element that is the most universal across different geographies. So for organizations that are present across many different countries and many different continents, there will be one backbone which will be gender, the binary definition, to which they will be adding other aspects of the broader diversity spectrum based on the specificities of the countries of operations. For example, L'Oréal in the U.S., they look at the intersection between gender, race, and ethnicity. We have organizations in Europe that are very often looking at the intersection between age, gender, and sexual orientation. In Southeast Asia, sexual orientation and working with a disability are definitely emerging topics.

So allowing ourselves this flexibility in saying we have a solid backbone - which is the one that can be legally measured and tracked across all geographies - which is the gender binary. And on this, we will be building this intersectional view with other beautiful characteristics that compose us as individuals. Having this flexibility allowed organizations such as L'Oréal, but then also some other institutions that we are working with within the UN system or international finance institutions, such as the IMF or the World Bank, to add different intersectional lenses to their gender binary approach."

Aniela Unguresan is Co-founder of EDGE Certification, the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality. Launched at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in 2011, EDGE Certification measures where organizations stand in terms of gender balance across their pipeline, pay equity, and effectiveness of policies and practices to ensure equitable career flows, as well as the inclusiveness of their culture. EDGE Certification has been designed to help companies not only to create an optimal workplace for women and men, but also to benefit from it. EDGE stands for Economic Dividends for Gender Equality and is distinguished by its rigor and focus on business impact. Their customer base consists of 200 large organizations in 50 countries across five continents, representing 30 different industries.

Prior to co-founding EDGE Certified Foundation, Aniela acquired extensive professional experience as a consultant with Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting, as a trader and project manager with TXU Europe and SIG Geneva, and as the CEO of CT Technologies.

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