Newsletter ACERA - Noviembre 2019

04.
GENDER IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION,
THE KEY
In the debate on gender equality. there is consensus around the need to
generate actions that accelerate the incorporation of more women and
eliminate the multiple gaps and barriers they still face within
organizations, most of all in decision-making positions, where Chilean
companies are still stagnant and in debt.
The reasons for low female participation are varied and systemic. The
care of the family, the lack of flexibility of the work system, the difficulty
of incorporating personal, work and family life conciliation practices with
co-responsibility logic and, of course, cultural factors, such as
unconscious biases and gender stereotypes, which justify traditional roles
between men and women, which influence discriminatory practices and
become enemies of the diversity.
O
PI
NION
Lilian
Denham
Executive Director
RedEG – Companies for gender
equality network
Reaching gender equity and equality represents a challenge and change
in various areas that must be faster, and for this joint work and
collaboration between the private world, the State and civil society is
essential.
The alliance between energy and government through the
Energía+Mujer program has a relevant role to play to change reality
and bet on female talent. Because if women are more than half the
population and make most household consumption decisions, it is not
logical that they are absent from the spaces where power decisions are
made.
But achieving these goals requires a business strategy that encompasses
a broad spectrum of action and is not solved by improvised measures.
Encouraging more women to study STEM-related careers, promoting
talents and empowering female leadership within organizations,
advancing institutional transparency and incorporating practices of
conciliation and co-responsibility, are determining factors in ensuing
more women can come to positions of greater responsibility and be
agents of transformation towards a more sustainable and efficient
energy industry.
International evidence has shown that organizations that have
incorporated women into decision positions have had positive impacts
on productivity, sustainability and innovation, and improve
decision-making and work climate processes, among other benefits.
Faced with the current scenario of social disruption and in the context of
"Energy Transition", this challenge takes on a special sense of urgency,
against which industry has the great opportunity to be an example of
inclusion and equality, to build together a fairer and more equitable
society for all.