Women in the energy sector have been urged to prepare to go the extra mile if they want to compete with men and also make a meaningful impact in the sector as well.
Speaking during the second “Women in Energy Conference”, on the theme: “Building Resilience and Growing Our Strengths”, Professor Aba Bentil Andam, a Physicist, advised women in the Energy sector to refrain from giving excuses when given heavy tasks, if they wanted a level-playing field such as attaining leadership positions and playing a pivotal role in an organisation’s decision making processes.
Elaborating further, she said that, excuses such as maternal, personal, health and family issues at times hinder the availability or ability by the women to accept and execute a task and noted also that these contributed to the gender diversity problem in the sector.
Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, the Chief Executive Officer, Volta River Authority (VRA), in a statement delivered on his behalf, asked the women in energy to develop a skilled work force among themselves that was confident and ready to face the post COVID-19 energy sector.
He urged them to disprove the assertion that, women in energy in Ghana could not use math and science to improve situations, make important decisions as compared to their male counterparts, nor contribute to development
He said women in energy should not be afraid to make mistakes, and advised them to get the right mindset, build confidence, and have the right perspective on issues to be able to be resilient.
“Although you are free to make mistakes, don’t make big mistakes, but small ones.”
Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company, also, said there was empirical evidence indicating that countries with the best Coronavirus responses were all led by women leaders and that the outcomes of the pandemic were better in female-led countries.
He noted that, during the global financial crisis leading to the Recession in 2008 thereabouts, it was asserted by some advanced researchers that companies with prominent women participation at the top level of decision making fared better than those that did not.
He said in most cases, there was in Ghana and other parts of the world, one could find one in 10 of the staff establishment in a typical Energy company being women.
“This has to change, and that change is here. I am sure in no time, we will see more women break the ceiling in such male dominated sectors to advance and demonstrate equal competence, if not better.
“Personally, I expect to see more women at the helm of showing the world the unique and complimentary effects of technology. Let us not rest on our laurels in upgrading our skills and grasp the power of technology to make a difference.”
Mr Daniel Acheampong, the President of the Ghana Employers Association, also asked for women to be given a platform for innovation to provide energy solutions, to take active part in production, distribution and service delivery and appealed to MiDA to integrate female programmes in their overall capacity building strategy.
He revealed that, a research had shown that when women were employed in the energy sector, they could contribute 12.28 trillion dollars to Global Annual GDP but however, women’s participation in the energy sector, especially in decision making was relatively low.
Organised by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), the two-day Conference, was to enable participants to leverage strengths for advancing gender equality and social inclusion or improvement in organizational performance within the sector.
