On this International Women’s Day, we are proud to announce our Gender & Youth Hub during the United Nations 2023 Water Conference. Co-hosted by WaterWoman Project and NYC Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, the Gender & Youth Hub will take place in person at German House and livestreaming online on Monday, March 20, to elevate gender and youth voices for the world’s first convening on water resilience strategy in 47 years.
The Gender & Youth Hub will convene students and young professionals in a call to action to address our global water workforce emergency. Women and youth are essential to addressing our urgent water challenges, including record-level retirement, staffing shortages, and a lack of gender and minority representation in the water sector. Currently women represent less than 20% of the water workforce, and experience the most impact from climate change.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned this week that, on our current track, the world is 300 years away from gender equality and the global progress we have made is “vanishing before our eyes.”
The Hub will focus on gender-inclusive, digital water jobs that are optimizing the way we manage our most invaluable resource by building an equitable and just water workforce of the future. An inclusive approach to digital transformation and community-focused recruitment will make essential water services work better for everyone.
Speakers will dive deep into strategies for managing water resources and modernizing infrastructure, recruitment, on-the-job training and opportunities for career growth. Role models will share inspiring advice on how water jobs can become a calling, especially for women and nonbinary people of color who are underrepresented in the water workforce.
WaterWoman Project is joined by NYC Junior Ambassadors Program, NYWEA Metro Young Professionals, Water Environment Federation, British Water, SUEZ Smart & Environmental Solutions North America, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, NGOs, and others for this discussion. Kohler is a proud supporter of the Gender and Youth Hub.
WaterWoman Project is the first women-led, diplomacy-driven initiative working to increase gender inclusivity to solve the water workforce crisis. The first program of WaterRising Institute, a Detroit-based 501(C)3 nonprofit organization born out of the Flint water crisis, WaterWoman Project increases gender parity and inclusive decision-making in water management to accelerate progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and 14 (Life Below Water) by 2030.
