With Argentina’s most recent regulations regarding renewable energy, targets were set to source 20 per cent of electricity from renewable resources by 2025. The country can expect an increase in local production of energy, as well as an increase in employment opportunities.
AMES (Asociación de Mujeres en Energías Sustentables; Association of Women in Sustainable Energy) was created with the aim of promoting women’s roles in the growing renewable energy sector in Argentina. According to an article in Energía&Negocios, AMES intends to promote the participation of women at all levels of the sector, as well as advocate plurality and equity in technical, professional and decision spaces.
Employment opportunities within the renewable sector span the entire value chain, from project planning, installations, operations, maintenance to finances, marketing to human resources, and much more. The emerging renewable energy market is, therefore, in need of professionals from various backgrounds, disciplines and qualifications.
According to IRENA’s 2019 report, renewable energies employed 10.9 million workers in 2018 across the globe. Only 32 per cent of these positions were filled by women. The report indicates that of this figure, 45 per cent carried out administrative activities, 35 per cent technical work and only 28 per cent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities.
Gender-specific data for the renewable energy sector in Argentina is not yet available, therefore the number of women working in renewables is unknown. The most relevant data comes from a Permanent Household Survey on employment in Argentina cited in the article, where renewable energy generation is included in the Electricity Generation, Transmission and Distribution sector. The latest available information from 2018 suggests that only 18 per cent of jobs in the sector are filled by women. Furthermore, based on different survey cited in the article, only 10 per cent of management positions of the companies which are financed in the local capital market are occupied by women and only 3 per cent of them have women in CEO positions.
The report likewise indicates a disparity in salaries, even in the case of the same job posts: on average, professional women receive 74 per cent of a man’s salary for the same job. With 142 renewable projects underway, Argentina can expect over 9,000 jobs created in the near future. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure women have equal opportunities to reduce the gender gap and encourage diversity in professional environments.
Learn more about the gender diversity situation in the wind sector in Argentina at Argentina Windpower 2019, where AMES will deliver remarks on the new association and its objectives.
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