“We want, above all, to strengthen the community that we have formed, between organizations from the civil world, experts, the public sector and the industry to stimulate and increase the participation of women at all levels of this industry,” said the Minister of Energy, Juan Carlos Jobet, as part of the Annual Meeting of “Energy + Women”.
With this initiative, the Ministry of Energy seeks to address the low labor insertion of women in the sector. “Energy + Women” has been recognized internationally for its innovation and collaborative work model. Its first concrete progress was the formation of the first Public Private Roundtable on Gender in Energy during 2018, and the diagnosis of gender barriers and gaps in the energy sector. Their results show, among others, that the female energy workforce only reaches 23%, that women receive a salary 24% lower than that of men, and that they occupy only 18% of the total managerial positions.
At the end of last year, an Action Plan was reached, to which 21 unions and institutions and 31 companies joined. Its implementation will have positive effects on about 25 thousand workers. Among its actions, it contemplates the development of internal diversity and inclusion policies; the development of recruitment and selection policies without bias, and initiate analysis of salary gaps.
“We want to give a renewed impulse to the Action Plan and motivate the incorporation of more organizations, and thus advance in concrete actions. We believe that there is a link between the urgency to achieve a more sustainable world and the role of women in this objective, because they provide another perspective, another sensitivity, another way of processing problems and proposing solutions. For this reason, we need them to be part of the energy transition we are experiencing today,” highlighted Minister Jobet.
During 2020, this Action Plan in the different adherent organizations will be accompanied by a cycle of technical assistance to share good practices, standards, instruments and methodologies that will allow progress under common criteria, as well as a reflective and shared view of progress.
Review the 2019 Achievements and 2020 Challenges of the Initiative “Energy + Women”
Outstanding Women in Energy
The meeting was also an occasion to make more than 40 prominent women in the sector visible, chosen by their institutions, unions or companies, highlighting their trajectory and their contribution in terms of gender equality.
The recognized women reflect the diversity that exists in the energy area: technical and professional operators were awarded; engineers, lawyers, journalists, and even a nurse; responsible for diverse areas, such as construction, operations, human resources, regulation or communications, and in industries of diverse energy sources, from natural gas to hydrogen, through geothermal energy and solar energy.
The outstanding women belong to organizations that will start working this year on the Energy + Women Action Plan.
