Another International women’s day is here and as always, celebration is spilling over, to last, longer than a day. Amidst jubilation, let there be some fact checks for women, especially working women, whose fight to end disparity, gave us this day. Let’s see how near we are, to the state of gender parity, today?
World economic forum’s global gender gap report 2020, says, that gender parity will not be attained in another 99.5 years. Also, in terms of economic participation gender gap would take 257 years to bridge, which is way higher than what it was two years or a year earlier. This really is the index for all professional and working women, which means, the struggle that started more than hundred years back, will not see light at the end of the tunnel soon, not in our lifetime!
Looking closer at home, India has gone down overall by four ranks this year, to 112th among 149 participating countries. But the worrisome part is that, in economic participation index, it ranks 149th, that is the bottom most. In percentage of professional and technical workers, it ranks 132nd and in percentage of legislators, senior officials, managers, the rank is 136th.
World economic forum gender gap yearly report is a definite performance indicator for any country, helps to assess the effectiveness of its gender initiatives, and take necessary actions for improvements. The data for professionals and technical workers, which supposedly constitute majority of women in industries like energy industry, is not an encouraging one, for us, women in energy sector.
But then globally, participation of women in energy industry is a very dismal one. Global energy talent index 2019 states that only 14% of workers are women. According to a recent IRENA study, women hold just 32% of jobs in renewable and only 22% jobs in the oil and gas sectors, and 45% of those jobs are administrative in nature. For India, this percentage is much lower, around 10% and much of this percentage is attributed to non-technical jobs like HR etc.
The progress along the years in either formation or implementation of policies for women, does not reflect any seriousness towards improving gender equality in this sector, or in any engineering sector for that matter.
Energy sector needs more and more women participation, for sustainable development of the sector. Many studies actually show that women participation in an important sector like energy industry, can positively contribute to overall empowerment of women in the country.
Although no official recognition by any state is available, yet, worldwide, it has been clearly established that energy access is related to poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. Thus, the demand has been raised from various corners, most of which are related to international human rights, that access to energy be included in the basic rights of every one. Along with this, the gender factor of energy access, has also come under wide debate.
A close connection between energy and women is now being realized. In a poor household, the responsibility of providing energy supply lies on women of the house. Tasks such as acquisition of traditional fuel for cooking, takes a major part of their time, reducing the productivity. Also, cooking using these fuels, has an adverse effect on health of women in rural areas.
Thus, it is a general idea that providing clean cooking medium or electricity, benefit women, and energy access actually empowers women.
But many also feel that energy access alone will not lead to empowerment of women unless different energy needs of men and women are also considered. For example, with electricity, women does same household chores in the evening also, or they use it for enjoyment like watching TV etc. But, that’s not exactly the empowerment. Empowerment would happen if women can utilize these hours for self-development, for which, associated process and policies are required.
Thus, there needs to be gender mainstreaming of energy policies, considering the different energy needs of men and women, to actually empower women through energy access. Researchers and social scientists see a problem in the gender mainstreaming of energy policies, as the industry is chiefly male dominated.
Industry regulars mostly do not consider gender, while assessing policies and processes. For, gender mainstreaming, hence, energy sector requires more women leaders who would participate in policy matters.
This important sector would face a severe challenge in skill deficit, if gender gap is not bridged. Our days start and end with energy, and demand is always growing. The increase in percentage of female students in STEM, in last decade has been phenomenal, more than hundred percent in some cases. It is evident that a large fraction of this skill would be unavailable for energy sector, if it does not remodel itself to be a inclusive industry.
To increase participation, initiatives need to start at the grass root level. There should be visible women role model from energy sector, who would inspire students, to take up a career in energy. Young women in STEM need to be made aware of opportunities, in the field of energy and engineering.
For such initiatives, real role models need to be created, facilitated by energy leaders, and government. First of all, government and sector leaders should recognize the correlation in future problem of skill shortage, and the present situation in which women are underused in the sector. Next, the sector needs to form internal policies and programs, like flexible working, changes in recruitment policies etc. to remove unconscious bias, and promote inclusive workplace.
Once again, this is a good time to review checks and balances and hit the road again, with stronger conviction towards a future with total inclusiveness in energy sector.
A happy international women’s day to all !!!!!!
By Sarbani Ray, Chairperson, Women in Energy-India