Women in CleantechFirst published in Cleantech magazine 2011 Issue 3. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd
CHC report concludes that cleantech companies must start recruiting women to senior roles if they are to meet the targets of the UK Davies Report.
A recent study based on appointments tracked by the CHC (Climate Human Capital) Human Capital Index (HCI) concludes that cleantech companies must start recruiting women to senior roles if they are to meet the targets of the UK’s Davies Report. The CHC report identifies trends in female appointments throughout the ‘climate change sector’ (defined as a number of sub sectors: Environmental Commodities, Environmental Sciences, Policy, Research & Advisory, Financial Services and New Energy). The statistics show that only two sectors (Policy and Research & Advisory) made female appointments in more than 25% of cases since July 2010. New Energy, which includes the cleantech sector, displays almost the least number of female appointments in the entire climate change space.
During the period covered by the CHC report, since July 2010, 32% of senior level appointments in the Policy sector were female – well above the average. According to Ed Hugo, Head of Analysis at CHC, this is “unsurprising, given that most policy appointments are in the public sector, in organisations with strict policies on equal opportunities employment”. The number of women being appointed to senior roles in the Research & Advisory sector was also above average, at 26%. Hugo points out that this is “no doubt driven by the large accountancy firms, law firms and consultancies with specific gender policies in place aimed at correcting gender imbalances”.
The New Energy sector saw just 9% of female appointments over the period. According to Hugo, the relatively low numbers of women in New Energy can be explained by the fact that this sector includes a large proportion of cleantech companies. Because these companies are in an early stage of development, “... the majority of hires tend to be engineering and technical positions”. Hugo points out that there is a greater propensity for men to study engineering courses at university and that fewer than 10% of the UK’s engineers are women.
The statistics are of particular concern with respect to the UK and Europe. Senior appointments of women in the New Energy sector were twice as common in the Americas as in Europe.
The Davies Report, commissioned by the UK Government, recommends a minimum of 25% female board representation by 2015. In order to meet its targets, one solution might be to encourage greater numbers of women to study engineering. However, transitioning female engineering graduates into the workplace is also an issue. The report refers to a briefing paper from EngineeringUK, which revealed that only half of female engineering and technology graduates enter an industry where engineering and technology is the primary activity, compared to 70% for men. That same paper reported that nearly double the proportion of females compared to males leave the sector altogether.
The UKRC, the UK Government body for the provision of advice, services and policy consultation regarding the under-representation of women in science, engineering, technology and the built environment, has recently been impacted by budget cuts, so changes to graduate recruitment levels are likely to be difficult to achieve. Hugo points out that changes at the graduate level will also take some time to filter through to the senior level appointments typically tracked by the HCI.
With respect to New Energy/cleantech companies, Hugo anticipates that, as the sector matures and the companies within it expand:
“....there will be greater demand for non-engineering roles, which will provide further opportunity to redress the current gender inequality.”
However, the overall conclusions from the report are troubling. The report concludes that:
“As a growth sector – and one that is central to the future global economy – the fact that so few women are filling senior climate change-related positions will alarm those who are pushing for greater female representation in the corporate world.”
