Green employment for women

Towards gen­der-inclu­sive renew­able ener­gy careers. Focus on Asia

For too long, pro­fes­sion­al careers in the ener­gy sec­tor have been male-dom­i­nat­ed. Until recent­ly, women account­ed for a mere 1 per cent of top man­age­ment posi­tions and 6 per cent of tech­ni­cal staff in the fos­sil ener­gy sec­tor glob­al­ly (Baru­ah, 2017). In com­par­i­son, the renew­able ener­gy sec­tor has seen an increase in women employ­ment over the past decade. How­ev­er, men still out­num­ber women in the sector’s key func­tions in tech­ni­cal, man­age­r­i­al and pol­i­cy­mak­ing posi­tions (Vangchuay and Niklaus, 2021; IRENA, 2019).

This paper sheds light on employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and gen­der inequal­i­ty in the pow­er sec­tor and pro­pos­es a num­ber of key action areas for facil­i­tat­ing gen­der-inclu­sive renew­able ener­gy careers.

Green employ­ment for women [PDF]

Octo­ber 2021

Authors: Aruni­ma Hakhu, CGIAR Gen­der Trans­for­ma­tive Approach­es, and Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er, Insti­tute for Advanced Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Studies

Edi­tors: Lau­ra Nagel and Sebas­t­ian Hel­gen­berg­er – IASS

Sug­gest­ed cita­tion: IASS. 2021. Green Employ­ment for Women. Towards gen­der-inclu­sive renew­able ener­gy careers. COBENEFITS Impulse. Pots­dam. www.cobenefits.info

An ear­li­er ver­sion of this paper has been includ­ed in “Ener­gy and Gen­der in Asia” by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and The Ener­gy and Resources Insti­tute (TERI).