Dr Angela Wilkinson: “We need energy systems that are resilient and built for the billions of lives and we need women at the centre, not playing catch up from the sidelines.”

Dr Angela Wilkinson: "We need energy systems that are resilient and built for the billions of lives and we need women at the centre, not playing catch up from the sidelines."

These opening remarks were made at the launch of the second edition of the Women In Energy Programme in Argentina on 29 April 2025, co lead by the World Bank and the Argentine Member Committee of the World Energy Council.

I have the honour of being the sixth Secretary General of the World Energy Council and the first women to hold this position in 100 years.

We first connected the dots between women and energy for positive change in the 1930s.

My grandmother’s lives were transformed by access to modern energy. Energy can transform our grand-daughters lives.

Despite this, today we should be concerned that women in energy have not progressed fast or far enough –

• Women influence 70% of energy use decisions at home, so why do we hold less than 20% of leadership roles shaping the future of energy systems?
• Today, less than 14% of energy company owners and barely 5% of energy ministers are women.
• In startups, where disruption should thrive, women-led energy ventures capture just 7% of available venture capital.

Based on current trends it will be another 100-130 years before women occupy half of all leadership roles and another 60-70 years before we achieve wage parity.

And yet, in the parts of the system where energy transitions are succeeding fastest — in decentralized solar, in clean cooking adoption, in energy entrepreneurship at the community level — women are already leading.

This is not a coincidence.

Research shows organizations with gender-diverse leadership teams are 25% more likely to outperform on innovation and decision-making.

The future of energy cannot be just about cleaner fuels and smarter grids.

It must also be about full-spectrum leadership — across technologies, across geographies, across generations.

Our global World in Energy Programme ambitions focus on engaging women as leaders and shapers of energy systems, more than customers and workers.

Our programmes are moving beyond mentorship.

Humanising energy is a smarter, not soft, energy agenda. Half the world’s population is missing from the story.

We need energy systems that are resilient and built for the billions of lives and we need women at the centre, not playing catch up from the sidelines.

The world can’t wait. And neither can we. My invitation to all is to pull energy together as a force for change.

I hope we will all meet again in October, at our World Energy Week in October this year.