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Empowering Women to Power the Dominican Republic
December 2023
USAID’s Engendering Industries improves economic opportunities for women in the country’s energy sector.
In the Dominican Republic, only half of women work in the formal sector, compared to more than 75 percent of men, and those women earn roughly half as much as their male counterparts. But USAID’s Engendering Industries is improving economic opportunities for women in the Dominican Republic by closing gender gaps in the energy sector, which offers some of the most stable and highest-paying jobs in the country.
The program partnered with EDESUR, an energy distribution company, in 2018. In the years that followed, Engendering Industries used its proven approach to increase gender equality in EDESUR’s workforce, resulting in the hiring of more than 650 women, and enabling the utility to achieve a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gender Equality Gold Seal. As EDESUR became a national role model for advancing women in the workplace, Engendering Industries engaged other Dominican energy distributors, EDEESTE and EDENORTE, building a community of practice that is now promoting gender equality across the country’s energy industry.
When EDESUR joined Engendering Industries, women made up only 37 percent of their employees, and the utility had no female engineers. Engendering Industries used global data to make the business case for gender equality, illustrating how gender-balanced teams in the energy sector perform better across a range of metrics. EDESUR reached for the opportunity to become a model utility for the region by increasing gender equality, improving operations, and leading the national conversation on the important role businesses play in advancing women in male-dominated sectors.
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"We wanted to make sure that EDESUR is not the only company that is focusing on gender equality in the power industry, but that they were working in collaboration with other industry players to maximize impact.”
– Khumo Mokhethi, Engendering Industries Coach
Engendering Industries Change Management Coach, Khumo Mokhethi, helped the company overhaul their policy landscape and implement formal anti-discrimination, equal employment opportunity, gender equity, and sexual harassment and gender-based violence policies, among others. EDESUR also conducted a series of internal and external communication campaigns, showcasing talented female employees, supporting gender equality, and taking a public stand against gender-based violence. In 2023, in recognition of the work done to tangibly advance gender equality at EDESUR, the company was awarded a UNDP Gender Equality Gold Seal; the highest gender equality rating offered by the UN.
These steps helped EDESUR increase the proportion of women on staff by almost five percent (from 37 percent of employees to 39 percent) and increase the number of female engineers from zero to eight percent.
With this success, Engendering Industries worked to create opportunities for EDESUR to step into its role as an industry leader. “Leading industry collaboration was one of EDESUR’s strategic targets, and we wanted to support this goal,” said Coach Khumo Mokhethi. “We wanted to make sure that EDESUR is not the only company that is focusing on gender equality in the power industry, but that they were working in collaboration with other industry players to maximize impact.”
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Engendering Industries supported EDESUR to engage other organizations in the sector. In 2021, the program sponsored staff from EDEESTE and EDENORTE to attend the Engendering Industries Gender Equality Training Course at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. Engendering Industries invited those trained employees, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Women, to attend a 2022 Men’s Engagement and Social and Behavior Change Communication training alongside EDESUR. EDESUR built on this momentum and organized the energy sector’s first-ever panel on gender equality, which convened stakeholders from across the industry and drew attention from a wide audience. The three utilities now engage in regular sessions to nurture collaboration and their gender equality initiatives.
“EDESUR has been a mentor to us,” said Isabel López, Ethics Specialist at EDEESTE, “I think it’s very important to have a success case close to you so that you can emulate the steps that they have taken.”
Building on their Engendering Industries training and with EDESUR’s support, EDEESTE launched a campaign on equitable fatherhood and launched their first policies on gender equality and sexual harassment. They are now working to implement paid paternity leave and are planning to register for the UNDP Gender Seal program like EDESUR.
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"EDESUR has been a mentor to us,” said Isabel López, Ethics Specialist at EDEESTE. “I think it’s very important to have a success case close to you so that you can emulate the steps that they have taken.”
With EDESUR, EDEESTE, EDENORTE, and other energy sector organizations collaborating to advance gender equality, Engendering Industries is positioning the Dominican energy industry to make sustainable shifts that will support women’s economic development for the long-term.
“Changing mindsets is a slow process – it’s human nature – but I think together we can make a stronger energy sector,” said López.
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