Speeches Shim
“When women do better, countries do better, communities do better, and families do better.”
Universal access to reliable energy is key to improving the health and well-being of people around the world. It strengthens livelihoods and bolsters local economies. Energy is especially critical to improving health, safety, productivity, education, and income-generation opportunities for women and girls, who are disproportionately impacted by lack of access.
Energy is not a gender neutral issue.
The unique experiences and challenges faced by women and men must be taken into consideration when scaling access to energy.
Energy access combats ‘time poverty,’ a critical driver of gender inequality.
When women and girls have access to the benefits that reliable and affordable electricity provide, unpaid work becomes less laborious and time intensive, allowing for the pursuit of education, income-generation, civic involvement, or leisure opportunities.
Access to energy improves the safety of women and girls.
When women and girls no longer need to use unlit latrines or walk for hours to collect firewood, their exposure to risks of physical and sexual attacks decreases.
Making a Better Living, One Solar Sale at a Time
Creating Jobs and Increasing Access to Affordable Power
Cleaner, more efficient fuels and technologies reduce the health impacts of household energy use.
Household air pollution kills over four million people every year. Because women and girls are primarily responsible for cooking, improved access to clean, efficient fuel and technologies reduces their exposure to harmful smoke from open fires.
New Cookstoves Improve Health, Protect Forests, Save Time in Malawi
Using less firewood, fuel-efficient stoves produce fewer emissions
Development outcomes are strengthened when the unique knowledge and capacities of women are included.
When women have equal access to energy, significant productivity gains are unlocked, strengthening social and economic outcomes. Energy policies, regulations, financing, and institutions all provide opportunities to unlock this untapped productivity by improving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Women are not just energy users.
Women are a key part of the value chain across the entire energy sector, from producing and distributing household energy to employment in the large-scale electrification workforce. Acknowledging the potential of women to formally participate in the sector as providers and decision-makers, instead of merely as users, results in increased opportunities for women and men to fully benefit from the energy sector’s economic and investment opportunities.
Lighting the Career Path for Girls in the Energy Sector
Improving women’s access to jobs improves development outcomes
Women are change agents in the energy sector.
When women serve as policymakers, executives, employees, and entrepreneurs, evidence shows that energy policies are more effective, energy products have higher sales rates, and utilities have higher returns on equity and investment.
USAID is working to increase access to energy for all people, and strengthen opportunities for women to formally participate in the energy sector at all levels.
All USAID energy programs integrate and consider gender issues not only to increase impacts for women and girls, but to increase effectiveness of interventions.
Programs
For more information on specific USAID programs that have a direct focus on the link between energy, gender equality and women’s empowerment, please see the list below.
Advancing Gender in the Environment
Supporting gender integration and women’s empowerment in environmental sectors.
Engendering Utilities
Increasing gender equity within participating electric utilities.
Publications
Stories
Translating Policy into Action
Supporting Women and Girls’ Equitable Participation in the Energy Sector
Building a Better Business through Gender Inclusivity
Empowering Off-Grid Energy in West Africa
Partnership, Innovation in Sustainable Energy Lifts Lives
Sumangala Patil Triples Income, Grows Business with Reliable Energy
Exploring the Relationship Between Energy Access and Gender-Based Violence
Strengthening Gender Equality in the Ethiopian Power Sector
Meazagenet Tsegaye of the Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU)
Powering the Poor
Microfinance Entrepreneur Rashmi Sinha Makes Clean Energy Solutions Available in Rural India
Betty Ikalany: Woman Entrepreneur of the Year
Advancing clean cooking solutions in Uganda
Women In Energy: Reem Hamdan
Director General Deputy, Electricity Distribution Company (EDCO), Jordan
With Gratitude: Ellen Dragotto
This page is dedicated to the memory of Ellen Dragotto, a USAID Energy Specialist whose commitment to promoting women’s participation in the energy sector inspired her colleagues throughout the international development community and touched the lives of many women and girls around the world.
Ellen launched the USAID Engendering Utilities program for which she was awarded the Laura W. Bush Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Global Women’s Equity.
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