Flowers & Thorns: Reflections on International Women’s Day
Welcome to another March 8th! Kids at school will be discussing gender equality and (hopefully) human rights. The flower and chocolate shops are full of pretty gifts for diligent and women-valuing partners that wish to express their feelings. Companies will give their employees a trinket of appreciation: maybe a small candy, maybe a chocolate, or a companywide email in shades of pink and pastel colors. The world will collectively revere the importance of woman, their mothers, sisters, lovers, and friends. After happy cheers and true (or forced) smiles we will move on. Shall we?
In my opinion dear reader, we should not. Today specially we should stop and reflect why do we need a “woman’s day”? I can’t recall the first time I heard the “silly and innocent” joke “we have one day for woman and 364 to celebrate men!”. At my first years of training and practice as an electrical engineer, this used to get me so angry and upset! Today it doesn’t, it gets me a little sad and, truth be said, hopeful. Helpful because, more often than not, I hear people throughout the gender spectrum speaking against it and calling such behaviors by their name: these are aggressions, folks!
In contrast to the traditional exchange of gifts and shower of words of affirmation, I suggest a small act that can change your March 8th celebration. An act that goes beyond the superficial and touches the lives of those you encounter. What if we try the uncomfortable and take a deep and meaningful look at the history of all self-identifying women? Women have a long history of suffering and mistreatment. Rape, exploitation, disbelief… have your pick, the list goes on!
What if we use this day to learn about the gender divide? Not to foster rage and hate, but to bring ourselves closer? I will turn my focus specifically to the energy sector, because this is a blog about energy and equity. Around the world, 2.6 billion people (most of whom are women) still rely on polluting cooking fuels that jeopardize their health. Compelling statistics from EIA Energy & Gender indicate that:
Women hold less than 20% of the top managerial positions across all energy industry sectors.
The share of women listed on patent applications is under 15% for overall technologies and drops to 11% for classes that are closely related to the energy sector like combustion apparatus, engines, pumps and power equipment.
Women in senior management roles by energy sector, 2019, IEA, Paris
The above data is no big surprise. It is also not the most shocking data on inequality or injustice perpetrated towards women. This looks like a terrible choice of an example, one bound to leave Greeks and Trojans unsatisfied. Well, you might ask, what about the “bring ourselves closer” that I mentioned earlier?
Please allow me to cite Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, with a passage from his book How to be an Antiracist: “My parents did not strictly raise me to be a Black patriarch. I became a Black patriarch because my parents and the world around me did not strictly raise me to be a Black feminist.”
How can we build bridges in the face of such stirred waters? Maybe we need to start by looking around (and inside) us. Maybe we need to educate ourselves and talk. With a sincere effort to learn and evolve. In the energy sector, this could mean increasing representation and ensuring that women have a voice at the table. Clean energy technologies can bridge this gap. Developing solutions that encourage the participation of women across the energy value chain could be a game changer. Most importantly, supporting women taking up careers in STEM fields that are historically male dominated will send a stronger message than pastel-colored gifts on International Women’s Day.
Gender bias and sexism is knitted in the fabric of our society, like so many other sores of mankind. Let us pull the thread of our own cloth, start by facing our prejudices and question how to do better. It is not for me alone to tell you what you must do to purge sexism from your life. Listen and those affected may give you advice. Be humble and try to learn every day, and let us all unite in this attempt to break the bias.
Reading suggestions for those who wish to “touch the uncomfortable” and start learning as a celebration to March 8th 2022 (And, yes, I purposefully did not list any feminist books. Curious? Let’s grab a coffee and chat):
Rosenberg, M. B. Nonviolent communication: A language of compassion. Del Mar, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 1999.
Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be an Antiracist. New York, NY: One World, 2019.