First Women’s Mentoring Knowledge Transfer Webinar

This first knowledge transfer webinar in the 2024 women's mentoring of COST CA 21104 addressed a view on the status of women in hydropower, including crucial facts, figures, insights and recommendations from the study of ESMAP/World Bank "Power with Full Force | Getting to Gender Equality in the Hydropower Sector".

Mentees as mentors from this year's cohort had the pleasure to listen to Debbie Gray, Senior Energy Policy Manager, International Hydropower Association (IHA), and Maria van Veldhuizen, Global Women's Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET). Both with Barbara Fischer-Aupperle, Co-Founder and Board Member of GWNET,  had performed the research and analysis on which the report is based, in a partnership led by IHA.

"I myself never had an issue to work in a male-dominated environment. But I recognize some of the challenges I have heard from the report's description" one of the attendants stated.

The round made good use of the Q&A round, moderated by Barbara Fischer-Aupperle, who also leads the women's mentoring in this COST Action as a task leader. This exchange included own experience on gender-sensitive situations and actions around the women's own working environments, with advice and recommendations from speakers and the study report. 

In addition, participants learned about the newly founded WISH network (Women in Sustainable Hydropower) with next steps in this network to come for persons as for Gender and Diversity groups from organizations relating to hydropower industry.

The women's mentoring is one of the tasks in Working Group 5 of COST Action CA 21104 on "Holistic assessment and stakeholder relations", lead by Dr. sc. ing. Marina Cerpinska from Riga University, Latvia.