18th of May 2021 - Today, we are happy, proud and fully energised because of the successful kick-off meeting of the Gender Power working group.

During the meeting, we gathered with community energy leaders from our network to coordinate our efforts to help mainstream gender-just energy communities. An energised and empowered group of REScoop.eu members joined to reflect on the current status of gender equality in the community energy movement. Moreover, we openly discussed how we want to bring together our knowledge, experiences, needs and ambitions as well as what role gender justice should play in the future of the cooperative energy movement.

The REScoop.eu team presented the preliminary results of a members’ survey, which show that the participation of women in the Board of Directors of energy cooperatives is still quite low, where there seems to be a better picture regarding the participation of women in Executive boards (for those that have one). Gender equality seems to be a medium priority issue for the cooperatives, and only a few of them have already included the gender equality principle in their official documents.

Nevertheless, we have decided to surf the umpteenth Covid-wave, which has actually enabled the participation of more women in community energy initiatives, and take action now, hoping that we will mobilise and inspire more in order to initiate a 'gender power wave'!

During the meeting, we took a moment to lay-out our vision for a future where “women are deeply involved in their local energy communities and actively contribute to the development of decentralised citizen-centred renewables systems”. A future in which“more female faces supporting the mission and day-to-day operations of renewable energy cooperatives will become visible”, and in which the sector will go beyond the issue of representation, and be able to consider, evaluate, and “benefit from the specific added value of women”. We also all agreed and underlined that it’s worth striving for a future where a gender-balanced Board will reflect a gender-balanced membership of a renewable energy cooperative.

The REScoop.eu team is committed to strengthen and coordinate our members’ activities in closing the gender gap in the energy transition. At the same time, it also became clear that this Gender Power working group wants to highlight and promote the value that women bring to the energy transition, and that we have the will to learn and implement tools that can help us achieve a gender-just energy transition.

Gender Power Kick Off

We are happy, proud, and inspired after this first step, and ready to take action to make it happen! Will you join us?

For more information, please get in touch with Antonia Proka: antonia.proka@rescoop.eu