If there was one theme that emerged at the recent Women Leading the Energy Transition one-day conference, is it this: inclusion is not nice to have or something that can take place on the side, but is central to achieving a sustainable and fair energy transition.
A sold-out audience packed out the Erasmus Paviljoen at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) on 10 October for an event centred around the theme Navigating Rapids.
Keynotes by ECWO’s Associate Director, Dorothy Grandia, Derk Loorbach (of DRIFT, Dutch Research Institute for Transitions at EUR), Tamara Metze (professor in Public Administration at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology) and Josee van Linschoten (WijkEnergieWerkt), and the different workshops that took place over the day, all elucidated this, from multiple different angles.
Powerful keynote
In her powerful keynote, Grandia touched on the role that men can play in the inclusion that is vital to all sustainable transitions in society.
“One of the biggest taboo topics in the world right now is the role of men’s hormones and their hormonal profile, and how that relates to social decision making …. so guess what ECWO is starting to study this year? Because it is time we stopped talking about inclusion as a women only or a foreign people only or neurodivergent people only subject and start talking about the elephant in the room: what if there is a whole bunch of men who would actually like to lead in a more balanced and wider spectrum of leadership required for a sustainable transition but, because of gender expectations around dominant white men in organisations, they feel excluded from being able to do that?”
It was a question that resonated during a day of grappling with different topics related to the energy transition, including the implementation of AI through a workshop with Marielle Feenstra (75inQ) and Prof. Wolf Ketter (University of Cologne) that explored how to ensure that the algorithms shaping our energy future reflect diverse values and realities.
Women in Clean Energy series continues into 2026
The 2025 Women Leading the Energy Transition conference formed part the Women in Clean Energy series that is being organised by 75inQ with different partners, including ECWO. The next in the series takes place on 13 March 2026 at the Koninklijk Instituut Van Ingenieurs. This time the theme is Exploring Mars with Venus. More information and tickets can be found here.
