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Clotilde Coron (2020)Gender, Work and Organization. Online firstAbstract. Several methods of calculation may be used to quantify the gender pay gap. The sociology of quantification shows how the construction of indicators may be employed to define certain notions. Literature on the performativity of quantification also highlights the effect that acts of calculation can have upon reality. This article combines these fields as it examines the illocutionary performative power of the “equal pay index”, which was developed by the French government in 2018, and which companies are legally obliged to publish on an annual basis. The article therefore draws on different types of documents: leaflets explaining the construction of the index, government‐issued communications, statements given by members of the government and companies’ own communications. With the aid of this index, the government can provide more precise definitions of the notion of equal pay and the field of action of companies. The novelty and benefits of the current case lie in the pairing of a relatively classic tool for commensuration and a subject—equal pay—that has suffered from a vague definition for decades. Furthermore, this article offers a conjoint study of the manner in which the index is built and the emerging discourse around it.Excerpt. "The originality of the work carried out by Desrosières lies in his use of the concepts of conventions to analyse operations of quantification. Quantification conventions are particular because they rest on technical and scientific arguments, which reinforce the illusion of their objectivity (Salais, 2016). Chiapello and Walter (2016) help to specify what may constitute a quantification convention: a cluster of operations that includes, for example, the selection of data, the choice of methods employed, and the criteria of pertinence and of evaluation of the tools used. In the same way, Espeland and Stevens (1998) note that operations of commensuration—the comparison of different entities according to a common metrics—also meet not solely technical, but also social and political aims."Link to the review