Opportunities and barriers for women in South Africa’s energy transition

This Impulse Paper is based on research with­in the COBENEFITS project and inter­views with women work­ing in high-skilled jobs in the ener­gy sec­tor in South Africa, con­duct­ed in May and June 2022.

Women are under­rep­re­sent­ed in the ener­gy sec­tor. Glob­al­ly, women hold around one fifth of the jobs in the oil and gas indus­try and less than a third of the jobs in the renew­able ener­gy sec­tor. The sit­u­a­tion is sim­i­lar in South Africa, where women account for just 31 % of the employ­ees of state-owned elec­tric­i­ty util­i­ty Eskom and 21 % of the work­force in the coal sec­tor. Female under­rep­re­sen­ta­tion is cur­rent­ly even worse in South Africa’s renew­able ener­gy sec­tor, where women account for only 14 % of employees.

Down­load:

COBENEFITS Impulse: Oppor­tu­ni­ties and bar­ri­ers for women in South Africa’s ener­gy transition

 

Year of pub­li­ca­tion: 2022

Authors: Lau­ra Nagel, Bet­ti­na Lebrun

Sug­gest­ed cita­tion: IASS. 2022. Oppor­tu­ni­ties and bar­ri­ers for women in South Africa’s ener­gy tran­si­tion. COBENEFITS Impulse. Potsdam.