Do you have enough women working in your power plant? Forget for a moment equal opportunity laws. More important is the knowledge that the programs and culture changes that would make women more likely to consider a plant career are the same ones that would make it more attractive to many younger men.
Recruiting women to enter the power generation industry is much more than a workforce diversity issue. The severity of the aging workforce problem varies from plant to plant, but it’s a well-documented constraint industry-wide and one that no company can afford to ignore indefinitely. If a generating company isn’t consciously doing all it can to attract women as well as men, it could be forfeiting the chance to hire some of the most qualified and motivated prospects.
To help answer the question of whether power generators are doing all they could be doing to make power plant careers visible and appealing to all potential candidate pools, POWER interviewed 10 women holding senior positions in different regions of North America, at different types of generating companies (and one vendor), and at plants powered by a wide variety of fuels.
Some of the differences in the interviewees’ experience of power plant work may be attributable to the inevitable idiosyncrasies of individual plants — whether those variations are influenced by geography, size of community, median age of the workforce, or other factors. The differences that emerged are important for two reasons: They remind us that no demographic group is uniform in its attitudes and experiences, and they demonstrate that different companies present different sorts of hurdles to women seeking to build careers in power generation.
Only one woman who was approached about an interview declined, saying that she was "philosophically opposed" to a story that singled out women. Given how hard many women have had to work to gain legitimately earned respect from their peers in predominantly male fields, her reluctance to participate is understandable. However, the goal of this story was not to make women in the plant appear as oddities, nor to blame their employers for the small numbers of women in power plants even today. Instead, it was to create a virtual roundtable of senior-level female advisors so that they could share their backgrounds, insights about career paths, and recommendations in a way that could enhance opportunities for all employers and all potential employees.
The surprise is not that women excel in all sorts of power engineering, plant operation, and management positions; after all, you’ll find women excelling in all types of endeavors. The surprise is that power generators have given so little attention to recruiting, training, and advancing women who could make essential contributions to the industry. That’s especially true today.
The future’s bright — if you’re in the sun (or wind) business
One factor that cuts across gender lines but that may make it especially hard to recruit women to fossil-fueled and nuclear generation jobs is the fact that renewable (and, maybe in the foreseeable future, nuclear) projects are growing while coal and gas projects are mostly stalled. It’s only logical that those choosing a career, and those advising them, would find a growing industry sector more promising than one that seems stagnant, or worse.
Add to that simple economic reality the fact of growing public awareness about climate change issues, and fossil plants have a bit of a PR problem. Take, for example, former Vice President Al Gore’s July 17 speech in which he laid down the gauntlet to have the U.S. provide all its electricity (including enough to power electric vehicles) from non-carbon-producing generation sources in 10 years. Quibble as you wish with his timeframe or even his thesis, but audacious goal-setting by someone with his clout has a wide-ranging effect on how young people and those who influence them think about jobs of the future.
Consider also the Engineer Your Life campaign developed for a high school audience by members of the engineering community and public television station WGBH Boston. The campaign, which aims "to change the perceptions high-school girls have about engineering and to encourage them to enroll in undergraduate engineering programs," includes a multimedia web site (www.engineeryourlife.org) that includes profiles of young female engineers. Among the dozen profiles is one related to power generation. Here’s the teaser: "Tanya Martinez helps Native Americans expand their renewable energy sources."
"But we still need workers in thermal plants!" some may argue. Fair enough, but to win some of the best and brightest could require shifts in strategy, culture, and career path. The relatively low-cost effort that some sectors of the power industry have made to recruit women is one indicator of where change is needed.
Industry’s role in career development
In June this year, the nonprofit Women of Wind Energy (WoWE, www.windustry.org/womenofwindenergy) launched an online mentoring program. "The purpose of the WoWE mentoring program is two-fold," said Louise Nemmers Mageli, program manager for WoWE in a press release. "First, to provide women with the leadership and technical skills needed to succeed in their current or future positions. Second, to grow future female leaders from within the wind energy industry." The organization also has about a dozen local chapters for in-person networking, including one in Canada (a rather large local area, to be sure).
Though WoWE is "sponsored" by Minneapolis-based Windustry, it is supported by a variety of "corporations, organizations, foundations, and individuals who value [its] goals and intentions."
For those in the solar field, Women in Solar Energy (WISE) presents a session at the American Solar Energy Association’s annual conference, where the group also hosts a networking lunch.
Other job training and development opportunities for both men and women are mushrooming in the renewables sector, from state-sponsored jobs programs to those sponsored by equipment manufacturers.
The nuclear industry has a well-established global nonprofit organization, Women in Nuclear Global (WIN Global, www.win-global.org) that supports the careers of women. Its current president is Cheryl Boggess, a senior project manager and principal engineer at Westinghouse, who has more than 28 years of engineering experience in the commercial nuclear power industry (see profile).
Though Boggess noted that WIN is "very integral" to the career success of women in her industry, the group is not focused on women only. Its charter is to communicate factually, considering emotions that the general public may feel about nuclear-related issues, and to engage the public in a dialogue about the role nuclear technologies play in everyone’s daily lives — from medicine to energy.
WIN "draws on women’s strengths to promote understanding of the industry," Boggess explained. As for supporting the careers of women in nuclear, WIN "is about breaking down barriers." In words that I could imagine coming from any competent professional’s mouth, Boggess said, "I have my position not because I’m female but because I’m qualified."
Training, recruiting, and mentoring programs for women are thriving in nuclear, wind, and solar sectors of the industry. Yet the sector responsible for the largest percentage of megawatts lacks such an organization (or has made it so invisible that none of the senior-level women I spoke with knew of it). For some women, as you’ll see below, having such an organization would have made a difference.
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You picked the right person for your article.