Organizations That Foster Gender Equity In Renewables The expanding field of solar has real potential for women in jobs from installation through management. By embracing inclusive practices that reflect its workforce communities, the solar industry will contribute to advancing not only the rights of women and other diverse groups but will also yield better performance for companies as a result of highly competitive, committed, and motivated teams. The solar industry already has a global workforce of more than 10 million workers and, by 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency says, this number is expected to triple. Let’s look at solar, though, as an example of incremental change. Discrimination and sexual harassment are seen as more frequent, and gender is perceived as more of an impediment than an advantage to career success.” Many respondents attributed the limited diversity of the STEM workforce to a lack of encouragement. Indeed, the Pew Research Center has determined that, “for women working in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) jobs, the workplace is a different, sometimes more hostile environment than the one their male coworkers experience. Maybe that’s why young girls don’t respond to “things more interesting to boys” - precisely because the field has been designed to appeal to males, and women are expected to fit into a male mold. We live in a society in which “pink” is a negative connotation. How do you get girls interested in things that are more interesting to boys,” she said, “without having to make your LEGOs pink?” “By the time women go to college, they’re gravitating toward consulting and project management rather than traditional construction jobs. Take this comment from Remy Pangle, director at James Madison University’s sustainable energy division, who identifies as female. Maybe it’s because power-brokers orient investment, training, and job descriptions to fit a primarily male target audience. 95% of all US philanthropy dollars go to white-led organizations, and 70 to 80% of these are led by men. Across the US, nonprofits directed by women and people of color are on the forefront of developing innovative solutions to climate change, but they are severely under-funded. The Solutions Project has uncovered how people of color and women are underrepresented in media coverage of clean energy and climate issues, despite the fact that they so often lead robust renewable energy actions. Renewables offer diverse opportunities along the value chain, requiring different skill sets and more progress toward gender equality when opportunities are equally accessible and the benefits evenly distributed. The global energy transition offers the chance to create new jobs and reshape all aspects of how energy is produced and distributed. IRENA estimates that the number of jobs in renewables could increase from 10.3 million in 2017 to nearly 29 million in 2050. Renewable energy employs about 32% women, compared to 22% in the energy sector overall, according to a 2019 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The ongoing energy transformation, driven by renewables, is bringing far-reaching, systemic change to society. This originally appeared in Clean Technica on February 15, 2021.
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