As IEA informs, one of the enduring legacies of women’s traditional exclusion from the energy sector is the continued disadvantage women and girls experience in comparison to their male counterparts in accessing information about employment and industry trends.
Men working in the fossil-fuel industry tend to be relatively well informed about such changes. According to this knowledge, some are seeking opportunities in the clean energy sector in higher numbers, and earlier than people employed in other sectors.
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In fact, 25% of students studying to be wind turbine technicians at the Lethbridge College Wind Turbine Technician program in Alberta, Canada were once oil and gas workers. In addition, recent media reports in Canada note that oil and gas workers in Alberta are more and more trying to find employment in the clean energy sector.
What is more, another sector of the information imbalance is the absence of awareness about the range of occupations, specializations and fields within the energy sector.
The energy sector is more than just engineers, research scientists or equipment installers – the sector draws upon expertise and skills from diverse backgrounds in environmental science, ecology, conservation, engineering, business management, law, public policy and finance, to name just a few
IEA says.
However, there are ways to account for these imbalances, like direct access to industry insiders or building connections through mentoring, outreach presentations and visits, site tours, student networks, and temporary work placements.
The industry can play an important part, especially supported by gender equality advocacy organizations in the energy sector like Women in Oil and Gas (WIOG), Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE), Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE) and Women in Clean Energy (WICE).
Furthermore, making training and education in the energy sector more versatile to allows for intra-sectoral and inter-sectoral transferability is also a promising strategy and there is already some movement in this direction. Namely, post-secondary institutions in US and Canada are seeking for ways to deliver graduates with skills that can be transferred across the wider energy industry sectors, instead of delivering petroleum-specific or renewable energy specific programs.
Such changes may lead the energy sector to employ and retain more women and young workers. Specifically, a survey carried out by Ernst & Young in 2017, found that out of 1200 Americans under the age of 20 showed a significant gender gap. There was a much greater percentage of young men found oil and gas appealing compared to young women, specifically 54% versus 24%.
The same survey indicated that 62% of respondents responded a career in oil and gas was unappealing or very unappealing. On the contrary, two-thirds of those polled, with no significant gender difference, said that a job working in renewable energy was appealing.
What is more, various reports have warned of a worrying skills gap as both industrialized and emerging economies retool their industries and try to find new opportunities for creating employment. This kind of shortages regard different occupations, from engineers and architects to skilled trades, equipment operators, technicians and construction labourers.
Finally, despite the fact that skill shortages represent challenges for labour supply, they also present a chance to train and recruit women, visible minorities, indigenous peoples, new immigrants and other groups that have been marginalized in the energy sector.
