By now, I have become accustomed to the sight. Lots of men, and a few lost souls in skirts. I am referring to the various clean tech events I am fond of attending in the Bay Area. Green being a new field, you would think women would have seized the opportunity, quick. Last year, earth2tech had a hard time coming up with a list of The Top 10 Women in Cleantech. Nancy Floyd, founder and managing director of cleantech VC Nth Power, and the woman who made it to the top of the list, knows this firsthand:
Since founding Nth Power in 1993, she has sat on more than 15 boards — and only one of her fellow directors was a woman. When we asked her if she’s ever felt intimidated by the male dominance in the field, she first replied, “No,” and then added, “but I do over prepare.”
In the green blogosphere, the landscape is not that much different. Of the top 15 green blogs, according to Technorati authority rankings, only three are the creation of sisters. Jill Fehrenbacher, at Inhabitat. Rebecca Carter, at Ecorazzi. And Heather Stephenson, with Jennifer Boulden, at Ideal Bite.
I was hoping women would shine in green nonprofits. I am familiar with Frances Beinecke, the head of NRDC, and assumed, wrongly, that she was the norm. Based on a review of executive teams for Charity Navigator‘s 10 best managed environmental nonprofits, only one, Sustainable Harvest International, is led by a woman, Florence Reed.
It appears, that !8 million cracks in the glass ceiling are not enough. Never mind, we shall be like ants, patiently building a different world, one tiny green step at a time.
This is sad, and not at all what I expected. In fact, I recently read a report that women says green is a way of life and here to stay. My cuz (female) runs a green PR firm. See them at http://www.parsonspr.com. Also, I write the green category for moms in a blog and look for green, virtual companies to feature all the time. Many are run by women. But it appears we might have some catching up to do in the green blog world.
I recently attended a fairly large conference in San Francisco focused on utility-scale solar thermal power plants. People from the leading companies, utilities, professional service firms, suppliers, and so forth attended. The tickets were roughly $1,500 each, for a two-day conference.
Although I didn’t do a detailed count, I did do a visual estimate, because the problem was so, SO, striking: My estimate was that out of every 100 people, only three to five, or perhaps seven, were women. If a being from another planet had attended the conference, it wouldn’t have realized that the human species is made up of two genders in roughly equal proportion.
That said, when it comes to green things, changing the energy infrastructure, and addressing global warming, I don’t think that patience is the answer for women/sisters. I think something more than patience is needed. Persistence. Pushiness. Pressure. And a good deal of IMpatience.
Right now, a huge and vitally important study is taking place in California, a big multi-phase investigation and analysis. It’s called RETI, the “Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative”. Large chunks of the work are being done by a major engineering company, Black & Veatch, one of the leaders (and probably THE leader) when it comes to power plants and renewables. The contract manager is the Office of the President at the University of California. Right now, I’m looking at the RETI Phase 1B report, at the list of Black & Veatch “principal investigators”, that is, people on Black & Veatch’s team. Of fifteen (15) names on the list — two Steves, Derek, Josh, Adam, Kevin, Tim, Dennis, Ric, Scott, and so forth — only two (Seema and Cristin) seem to be women’s names.
I think this is true in most business initiatives – particularly if tech is involved.
On the other hand there is a strong representation of women working the science and, around here, many of the small grass root efforts have heavy female representation.
A hard science working group I’m in is 40% female – everyone respected and with a PhD.
The green movement (Sierra Club and others) has been male dominated from the beginning. I think they have failed for a variety of reasons and there are great openings for new thinking.
The fastest, cheapest and most effective (in the next decade) paths to lowering carbon emissions involve conservation rather than efficiency and new technologies. My experience is that women tend to be more adroit at this sort of thinking and I have great expectations.
ps — (I hit return too soon)
The short and medium term solutions have a strong social component. Women tend to be better here. The money, of course, is on the tech side. The tech side will probably be slowed by the recession, so the conservation side needs to be stressed if there is going to be any progress.
I would love some female companionship here in the world of nonprofit leadership!
Thanks for pointing this out – as we work to involve schools in environmental education efforts, a continued drive to encourage girls and children of color to focus on math and science related careers seems in order. Go, Florence!
I went to engineering undergrad. I was the only woman in probably 95% of my engineering classes. After engineering, I went to work at a major aerospace company doing environmental engineering. In the environmental engineering group, about 40% of us were women – which was fantastic. But in the company overall? About 5% of the engineers were women.
Now, I’m an attorney practicing environmental law and have a green consulting business. I gravitate to conservation, grass roots efforts and conscious consumerism. I see lots of women – but when I do tech related stuff – tech conferences, emerging “green” technologies, etc. – I don’t see very many women. I think we need a voice but I’m not sure how to do it. A lot of the tech people continue with the old adage – better living through chemistry. And that’s not my focus or indeed the focus of many women in the green movement.
I don’t have any solutions really, except it seems to me that the two sides of green need to get together to develop a solution that will work.
I just returned from the big Solar Power International conference in San Diego where I too observed this first hand. I feel so fortunate that we are roughly half and half here at SunRun – I think we are one of the few solar companies like that. For “green” to be embraced, I firmly believe that it must be practical and applicable to our everyday lives and women are the drivers here. Framing green produces and services in this way will attract more women both in the business world and as green consumers, I think. In the case of solar, for example, we need to talk to people about saving money by purchasing solar power instead of talking up the latest and greatest technical advances.
Sydney
http://www.sunrunhome.com
Hi all. I live in a strawbale, off grid community and am busy getting my business (Eco Inn, Organic Cafe, Green General Store and Sustainability Seminars) off the ground and ready to fly. I have found Coop America to be tremendously helpful. I had the opportunity to attend one of their Green Business Conferences – it was stunning! Being in a room filled with 300 business people (half of them were women) for whom green is a non-negotiable was a remarkable, soul-filling experience. There are lots of green business women out there; we just may not be getting the press they deserve. But keep an eye out – we’re a force to be reckoned with!
PS – Check out Emily Pillotin (formerly of Inhabit) of Project H Design – they’re doing fantastic socially responsible green projects!
I was recently at Natural Products Expo East Show in Boston (http://www.ecosceneinc.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/10/16/Reporting-live-from-Boston) and was pleasantly surprised to see quite a plethora of female “ants” involved in the green movement. Two awesome female owned companies included: Shohba (www.myshobha.com) a natural spa line out of NYC to Wysi Wipes (http://www.canawipe.com/) 100% natural and biodegradable.
Wow! Lots of great thinking here, and thanks Steve and Jeff for jumping in and representing the masculine. I don’t have much to add. You said it all pretty much. Yes, women are very active on the green front. They are just not where the money and the power are, for the most part. Part of the global problem is that we are still relying on obsolete, patriarchal ways of solving issues. What is needed, as pointed by several of you, is an integration of the masculine and feminine forces, of technology and social, of power and love, of connectedness and purposefulness. This discussion is a great example of the kind of dialogs that need to take place in order for this process to happen.