New York Energy Week recognizes how crucial recruiting more women into the energy sector will be for the future of the energy industry and the knowledge economy more generally. That’s why we’ve devoted specific conversations to this issue for the last three years, including last year’s Women in Power Breakfast. And we’ve made this a priority because ensuring that women are entering the energy sector is especially crucial to America’s long-term economic competitiveness.
A few years ago, an article in The Atlantic declared that the lack of women in the energy sector was an exigent economic threat. In the article they referenced a paper by the American Society for Engineering Education that found, in 2011, only 18.4 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering were awarded to women, 22.4 percent of master’s degrees, and 21.8 percent of Ph.D.’s. The energy industry has been historically dominated by men, and this was going to seriously handicap America’s competitive in the global economy.
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By 2012, worldwide clean energy investments had increased 600 percent, as compared to 2004, to $263 billion. A report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) showed that 7.7 million people were employed by the renewable energy industry at the end of 2014, an 18 percent increase from 2013. With these drastic increases in recent years, the Pew Clean Energy Action Plan 2012 declared the global economy to be at “The Clean Energy Tipping Point.”
Yet, despite this impressive growth, with millions of jobs existing in the energy sector, the research firm Catalyst reported that only 12 percent of jobs in the energy sector were held by women while the 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that only 15.1 percent of architects and engineers are women.
But there’s hope on the horizon; trends suggest that more women are entering the energy sector. Adnan Z. Amin, the Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reported that the number of women in the U.S. solar industry increased from 26,700 in 2013 to 37,500 in 2014, over a 40% increase in just one year. And Oilonline.com predicts sizeable increases in the number of women entering the oil, natural gas, and petrochemical industries in the coming years.
So we’ll again be continuing the conversation this year around this important and timely issue. This year’s conversation, entitled “Women Disrupting Power,” will be held on June 14. Joining us will be Amanda Levin, Colleen Calhoun, and Andrianne Payson, who are three thought leaders and influencers in the energy sector. They’ll discuss disruptive technologies and current trends that are impacting how women can excel in tomorrow’s energy economy, inspiring the next generation of women leaders in this sector.
