New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
‘Leave no woman behind’: New alliance to support women in the energy workforce
11/1/2023
News
The Women’s Energy Network Alliance (WENA) is a new umbrella group of initiatives and member organisations that specialise in supporting careers for women in energy.
Pledging to ‘Leave no woman behind’, WENA’s membership comprises Women in Nuclear (WiN), POWERful Women, Lean In Equity & Sustainability, Women’s Utilities Network (WUN), ALLY, ReWiRE, District Heating Divas and Full Circle 21.
These member organisations and initiatives plan to collaborate more closely and contribute their specialist knowledge to support women at a variety of career levels, energy industries and disciplines – from championing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach for girls to progressing senior women to the C-suite (executive manager level); and from focusing on engineering, renewables or nuclear sectors, to covering the whole energy industry.
The WENA alliance has one common mission, however – to make much faster progress on female representation in the UK energy sector to meet the urgent energy transition challenges today and in the future.
Each member is committed to sharing best practice and collaborating to support the entirety of the female energy workforce and will meet monthly to share resources, ideas and actions, starting with a conference titled ‘Striving to thrive in a transitioning sector’ on 14 March 2023 (details on registration to be released soon).
Commenting on the new alliance, Ivan Baldwin, President, WiN UK, says: ‘Nuclear energy remains a key component in the UK’s energy mix and it’s important the nuclear workforce is made up of diverse talent if we have any hope of reaching net zero in the most effective and efficient way.’
Lame Verre, Co-Founder, Lean In Equity & Sustainability, adds: ‘Whilst there are many women’s networks and initiatives, we formed this group as we believe there is a great deal we can learn from one another, both as a sector and as women’s networks. WENA provides a one-stop-shop for women in energy at all levels and working in various parts of the value chain, providing opportunities to learn more about other segments and disciplines.’
She continues: ‘Our motto is “Leave no woman behind”, and we hope the support this group can offer as a collective will improve the attraction, development, retention and promotion of female talent at all levels across the energy sector.’
To find out more about WENA and how you can get involved, please contact [email protected]
