Historically, employees in the African clean energy sector have been predominantly male – but that is slowly changing. Clean energy companies across Africa are making concerted efforts to diversify their workforces, making a particular effort to attract, hire, and retain women. Companies have broadened marketing approaches, innovated in how they manage applications and interviews, investigated biases in outreach and hiring, developed gender action plans, and looked for other ways to increase female workforce representation. These efforts have been driven by greater pushes from investors and funders, as well as a growing body of research showing that diverse teams perform better.

Despite this progress, women still face unique barriers and bottlenecks to accessing jobs in the clean energy sector. This report tries to further illuminate these challenges, highlighting the voices and experience of women who are breaking into the clean energy sector, and draws upon the broader literature on the topic as well as our own hands-on hiring and program experience and conversations with dozens of sector employees and experts.