# of Women in the U.S. Solar Sector is 26%
The # of Women in Installation or Other Hands-On/Technical Positions is Unknown, but is Far Less!
1.4% of Gender, Non-Binary Workers in U.S. Solar Sector (Solar Industry Diversity Study)
52% Expected Job Growth in Solar PV Jobs 2020-2030 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
26% of respondents found it “very difficult” to hire qualified workers (Solar Jobs Census 2018)
In the 2019 Solar Industry Diversity Study:
of those who responded who were solar senior executives, 80% were men and 88% were white
of those who responded and were in a manager, director, or president level position, 37% were men and 28% were women
Median wage for men was $29.19 and Median wage for women was $21.62 (75 cents to the dollar is what women were paid when looking at the median across the industry)
of those who responded and make over $75/hour in the solar industry:
1 in 5 were white women
1 in 20 were women of color
1 in 3 were white men
Women’s participation in the global labor market is 47% according to the International Labour Organization - so we are behind in the solar industry…
Executives in Solar by Gender
And what about the pipeline - how will we reach girls so that they know this is a viable career?
Carly Berwick, in a 2019 Edutopia article had this to say about girls and STEM education: “In science, girls perform on par with boys and enroll in advanced science and math courses at equal rates as they move into high school. And then something happens. A gender gap in participation starts to appear as girls take fewer of the more advanced STEM courses and tests as they get closer to college. This gap widens the longer girls are in school and is often compounded by issues of race and class. Researchers don’t know yet if these continuing disparities in STEM reflect the slow pace of societal change, child-rearing expectations, or something deeper and more entrenched, such as the way we think about girls’ minds.”
Given this, we must find ways to reach girls in elementary, middle school, and high school with STEM education, and also offer a picture of how women are doing this work already, and give them hope and inspiration to pursue these courses and careers themselves. Solar fits in easily with the STEM education approach, and some organizations like We Share Solar have great approaches to this that specifically utilizes solar in the education they are carrying out.