Gender Just Energy Policy: Engendering the Energy Transition in Europe
January 24, 2023
Gender equality and social justice receive limited but growing attention in energy research and energy policy. Differences between women and men in their access to and use of energy services constitute the core of the gender-energy nexus research. Within households, access to energy services have implications for meeting needs and interests, which are differentiated between women and men. Differences also occur between households, often mediated beyond income levels, by social characteristics, such as race, age, civil status and ethnicity, and are influenced by personal and contextual factors. These differences, which exist not only between the two groups, but also within them, require specific targeted forms of action rather than generic policy instruments. In the search for a just energy transition, it is essential to scrutinize how energy policy can reflect the rights and meet the needs of all energy users.
Gender-energy nexus research is rooted in development studies, with empirical data that comes mainly from the Global South, and less from the Global North1 . One of the first publications on the gender-energy nexus in Europe focused not only on energy consumption, but also on the women working in the energy sector (Clancy and Röhr 2003). Recently there has been a growing interest in the gender-energy nexus in the Global North, focusing mainly on energy poverty and just transitions (Lieu et al. 2020; Søraa et al. 2020; Mang-Benza 2021). In Europe, energy poverty has a gender face, with evidence showing that more women than men struggling to afford the energy services that they need (Clancy et al. 2017; Sanchez-Guevara et al. 2020). Energy services are defined in this thesis as ‘functions performed using energy which are means to obtain or facilitate desired end services or states’ (Fell 2017, p.129). Despite the growing attention to injustices and inequalities of the energy transition and the recognition of the gender dimension, there remains limited theoretical understanding and empirical evidence on a gendered analysis of energy policy.
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