Lessons learned | As the report states: “Such a discouraging context
results in very limited numbers of women in STEM programmes and allows the persistence of forbidding or intimidating aspects of the field, and barriers faced by women who would otherwise be promoted to higher and leadership positions. The final result observed is a shortage of qualified women available for employment in the hydropower sector, creating at the same time a pipeline challenge: fewer women than men enter the sector at a junior level, leading to fewer women being considered for more senior positions as they progress.”
2. Lack of female role models A lack of role models makes it difficult for women to envision a career in the hydropower sector or to find mentors and sponsors within their places of work or organisations. Both women (51%) and men (39%) ranked this as one of the top barriers to gender equality in the sector.
Above: The new ESMAP report is viewed as being a pivotal step towards driving change in the hydropower sector where women remain significantly underrepresented
hydropower sector, whereas others lead to fewer women staying or progressing. Most notably, similar experiences were shared by women of all ages and from countries around the world through the survey and interviews.
Barriers
As Power With Full Force report reveals, there are five main barriers to gender equality in the hydropower sector:
1. Low proportion of women with relevant STEM skills.
In most countries women are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree programmes – on average only 20 to 30% of STEM students are female, with widespread traditional views persisting of the hydropower as an industry reserved for men. Girls are described as facing a twofold challenge.
Below: A turbine wheel being printed on a 3D printer. There is a need to create welcoming and gender-inclusive teaching environments
They not only need to convince their family that their support will bring benefits but also have to navigate through an educational system that provides very little equity, and few adequately gender-responsive facilities or teaching methods.
3. Bias by senior management in the hydropower sector in favour of employing men Prevailing perceptions of gender roles prevent many women from entering and/or staying in the hydropower sector. Such perceptions vary but include the view that women are not as strong or analytical as men. This contributes to gender inequality by preventing women from seeing hydropower as a viable career option and by generating negative assumptions about their ability to perform once they are in the sector. As hydropower is a labour-intensive, technical, and engineering-focused industry, it can be viewed as being less suitable for women.
4. Lack of awareness among women of opportunities in the hydropower sector Women are not always aware of the extent to which they can benefit from the formal and informal systems, behaviours and values a company encourages its employees to represent and embody, including dissemination and gender-neutral advertising practices. When a company understands and implements gender equality policies that result in closing the gender gaps, such as promotions, spaces for leadership, and decision-making, among others, it makes for a better atmosphere and work environment and can help to improve performance, health, and satisfaction.
5. Workplace environments that are unwelcoming to women Opportunities for women to work at hydropower facilities are often constrained by practical difficulties that are interwoven with social and cultural expectations. These remote locations may be considered unsafe for women (and sometimes actually are if women are only present in small numbers), while appropriate facilities and safety equipment for women are still lacking. The fact that these locations are at times unsafe for women (but safe or safer for men) gives a signal that this is a sector that has little interest in adapting for working women; on the contrary, the sector evidently expects women to adapt to it, and indeed only enter it if and when they are ready to accept any consequent challenge to their safety, family life, parenthood or wellbeing.
30 | December 2023 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
