Energy and Gender Equality

Gender equality is an important topic of discussion across different parts of the global economy. The need to include women in professional capacities across sectors like health, education, security and energy cannot be overemphasised. However, there is an essential relationship among these industries between energy and gender equality, directly and indirectly.

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, gender equality means equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for both men and women. Hence, these rights, responsibilities and opportunities are not predetermined on whether a child is born male or female.

Although gender equality was incorporated into international human rights law and adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December 1948, the UN has stated that it goes beyond being just a human right. According to the organisation, gender equality is essential to achieve peaceful societies with full human potential and sustainable development.

The fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5) is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. For 17 years, the Global Gender Gap Report has used four main indicators to measure the gap between women and men. These indicators are economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, educational attainment and political empowerment. The 2022 gender gap report, which covered 146 countries, estimated that it will take 132 years for the global gender gap between men and women to be closed.

According to the report, North America is the most advanced region in reaching gender equality, with an average score of 76.9 per cent. Europe follows closely with 76.6 per cent. Sub-Saharan Africa ranked 6^th with an average score of 68.7 per cent ahead of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. However, with this data, what is the relationship between energy and gender equality?

According to the World Bank, as of 2020, the electricity access rate for North America stood at a 100 per cent. Comparatively, the electrification rate for Europe stood at 99.9 per cent and 48.2 per cent for Africa. Hence, could there be a connection between access to energy and gender equality? If yes, how much does energy access contribute to countries achieving gender equality?

The lack of access to energy affects women in more ways than men, including health, safety, education and economic empowerment. With women being majorly responsible for household activities, especially in rural areas without energy access, they must find alternative energy sources for cooking and heating. These alternative energy sources, mainly firewood, coal or kerosene, lead to greenhouse gas emissions that harm health. These emissions, over time, lead to health complications for people in the immediate environment, primarily women and children.

Also, in sourcing alternative energy sources, women spend a considerable amount of their lives out of school, which accounts for low literacy and capacity development among women. The lack of energy access to provide lighting in open spaces also affects women’s safety by encouraging gender-based violence. In addition, women’s safety is threatened in rural instances where they have to go into bushes to find firewood for household chores.

The established relationship between energy and gender equality begs the urgency for the global community to intensify inclusion actions. A first step would be the inclusion of more women in the policy-making positions of national energy agencies. This would ensure the localisation of energy solutions to meet the needs of women, especially in rural areas.

In addition, developing more energy projects to address the electrification deficits across regions will encourage female education. This is because women, particularly young girls, will not need to spend most of their days sourcing for alternative energy sources and can attend schools with more time and energy to study. This would improve the literacy rate for women globally and increase female personal development, which is essential for economic growth and sustainability.