This article discusses Ammon's (1995) model of the social forces that establish which forms are standard in a language. We relate to the model in two respects: on the one hand, we specify it by emphasising the role played by lay linguists in the discussion about language standards. On the other, we apply the model to Swiss multilingual official texts. We identify the different forces acting in the federal administration and refer to their norms. Our focus is in particular on non-sexist language use.