Ahead of the upcoming International Women’s Day taking place on 8th March, Jo Parker-Swift, CEO and founder of Solivus, has highlighted the gender imbalance in the UK’s tech and green tech industry.
Jo Parker-Swift said: “Despite progress, the gender gap in climate tech remains high. Women make up less than 20% of the energy industry’s workforce and less than one in five leadership roles in the energy sector are held by women.
“Though other factors such as societal stereotypes and underrepresentation play a part, it’s clear that the lack of women taking on STEM subjects is still the number one reason there is such a gender imbalance in the UK’s tech and green tech industry.
“Despite receiving a lot of attention in recent years, the gender gap in STEM subjects remains high. Only around a third of graduates are women – a figure that has remained largely unchanged for the past five years. When you break it down to subjects such engineering and technology the statistics are even worse – 16% of graduates are women. International Women’s Day offers a moment, though, to reflect on what is and isn’t working and what needs to be done to improve the balance. There is an element of chicken and egg. How can young women feel comfortable pursuing a career in an industry which it is still overwhelming male and female role models are lacking? At the same time, how can we close the gender gap if we are unable to get women through the front door because not enough of them are studying STEM.
“I believe a huge part of this solution lies in the classroom. Our sector offers incredible, challenging, and varied career opportunities – and it’s important that we reframe how children view STEM topics so that both boys and girls are encouraged into this space early and girls realise that companies do want to employ female engineers.
“It is also important that women already in start of their careers should receive training on how to combat social stereotyping or other common barriers to career progression. To help with the challenges some women may face working in a male-orientated environment, organisations need to build an infrastructure to support women and other minorities, with communication, management and leadership training that focusses on overcoming these particular challenges to benefit both them and the companies they work for. We would in my opinion then see a pattern of tech employers promoting more women into management and leadership roles. This is an easy way to shift culture and benefit all.
“The urgent need for better gender equality in green tech cannot be overstated. Global warming is happening faster than we are and having a diverse clean energy sector ensures that we are better equipped to address the world’s biggest climate problems. Major, complex challenges like the clean energy transition require a variety of minds, perspectives and novel new ways of thinking, potentially leading to more effective environmental solutions. It’s why improving gender balance is critical in developing the cutting-edge green technologies needed to fuel net zero.”
