7th webinar on gender mainstreaming in Women in Renewable Energy Systems
The 7th webinar in the framework of the W4RES Capacity Building measures for supporting gender mainstreaming in Women in Renewable Energy Systems was organized by the European Centre for women and Technology and focused on the added value of gender in the W4RES and RHC agenda.
In her introduction Eva Fabry, Director of ECWT talked about the importance of having more women in the energy sector as both as researchers, innovators and entrepeneurs as (i) women are affected more by climate change in large part of the world; (ii) women have developed strong skills and knowledge related to natural resource management; (iii) women are also first responders when it comes to reacting to natural disasters and contribute greatly to the resilience of their communities.
Eva pointed out that supporting women and diversity in general leads to more innovation. Inclusive teams think less homogeneously which allows them to come up with innovative ideas and to bring diverse solutions to diverse problems. She also referred to the Harvard study[1] that companies with a diversity above-average had 19% higher innovation revenues.
Last but not least, women tend to have a more inclusive approach and focus on values that matter, such as the environment, education, well-being, and sustainability.
Dora Marosvölgyi, Founder & CEO DARE Innovations, EIT Strategic Partner and Mentor, Co-creator EIT JUMPstarter with experience of supporting 200+ start-ups from different sectors and
Sanaa Hichami, Senior regional investment advisor to Power Africa program, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change: Due to a technical problem, she could not join the session and she shared her input after the session in writing.
The webinar focused on five questions:
- The keynote´s spark for supporting gendered innovations
- The added value of women in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in RES
- Good examples of innovative women-led or co-created projects
- Women´s out-of-the-box thinking in the financial sector for solving RES problems
- The importance of role models and mentoring
Watch the recording of the webinar here. Read the webinar transcription here.
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[1] How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation (2018), BCG,Lorenzo R., Voigt, N.,Tsusaka, M., Krentz, M.
