What do female entrepreneurs in energy want in order to succeed? Also, how do female entrepreneurs in energy gain access to the tools they need to win in the energy sector?
On March 16 2021, “in connection with the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Denmark’s Mission to the UN organized a side event on the link between energy transition and women empowerment. Furthermore, the objective was to highlight how investing in the energy transition can contribute to improving gender equality. In addition, the webinar explored how investing in women can accelerate the energy transition.
Entitled ‘Empower Women, Energize the World’, the event featured speakers from diverse geographical representation. These were the list of speakers:
- Flemming Møller Mortensen, Danish Minister of Development Cooperation
- Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and CEO of SEforALL
- Irene Giner-Reichl, Chairperson of Global Women’s network for the Energy Transition (GWNET)
- Karin Isaksson, Managing Director of Nordic Development Fund
- Dorthe Petersen, Director of Plan International Denmark
- Monica Maduekwe, CEO, Puttru Technologies
- Helen Watts, Senior Director of Global Partnerships, Student Energy
- Rana Ghoneim, Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO
Here is how we contributed to the dialogue
- For example, we know that most women entrepreneurs tend to have a more gender diversified workforce. Meaning that women tend to employ more women than their male counterparts. The implication being that in order to increase female participation in the energy sector empowering female business owners to expand their operations could help.
- We also know that, women-owned energy businesses tend to face unique challenges that hinder their ability to scale. These challenges include not having the technical background to operate in the energy sector. For instance, 50% of respondents interviewed in this study noted that low technical expertise, lack of a STEM background, low technology awareness were reasons behind the low participation of women entrepreneurs in the energy sector;
Therefore, if we are to see a meaningful improvement on women’s participation in the energy sector, barriers to accessing top-notch technical expertise and business capital would have to be addressed.
Finally, you can read all about our message on this topic here.
