Understanding Intersectionality in ASEAN’s Energy Gender Gap

In the face of the changing climate and rising energy demands, ASEAN is working towards a transition to cleaner energy. Central to this transition is a growing emphasis on making sure it is just and inclusive, to ensure that no one is left behind in the process. The principles of ‘just and inclusive’ advocate for a people-centred energy transition by protecting and empowering the ASEAN people in the shift from a fossil fuel economy to a low carbon energy system. However, a common understanding under these principles should be determined, including the matter of gender equality, to establish more inclusive policies and action plans. Despite regional efforts to promote equality, women still make up only 8% of the energy workforce in ASEAN. This gap is not just a number, it’s a reflection of deeper, intersecting barriers related to labour participation, education access, and leadership opportunities. These social dynamics, often shaped by longstanding cultural norms and systemic inequalities, are at the heart of the region’s gender imbalance in energy.

What Is Intersectionality and Why Does it Matter?

The concept of Intersectionality helps explain why the gender gap persist. It refers to how different social factors, such as gender, class, education and cultural norms, interact to create unique forms of disadvantage. In this case, it is about how issues such as employment, education, and decision-making processes interact to create gender inequality in the access to the energy sector. For example, the term ‘male-preferred’ territory exists within the energy sector due to factors like gender norms and limited access to opportunities for women’s participation, creating significant gap for men and women participation. Recognising the root causes of gender disparities and how they interact through the aspect of intersectionality is crucial to understand the energy-gender gap. Furthermore, providing an intersectional gender perspective in the journey towards a just and inclusive energy transition is vital to be applied to align with regional initiatives, especially the ASEAN’s energy blueprint – ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation 2026-2030 under the theme “Advancing Regional Cooperation in Ensuring Energy Security and Accelerating Decarbonisation for a Just and Inclusive Energy Transition”. Thus, this article identifies how social aspects including labour, education, and leadership opportunities have been influencing the state of gender equality in ASEAN’s energy sector and how the region can bridge this gap.

The Labour Force Gap

In a global perspective, women are often responsible with household and caregiving duties, which are often unrecognised, unrewarded, and unpaid. In ASEAN countries, women’s participation in paid labour is persistently low, with the narrowest gender gap in Lao PDR at 3% and the widest gap in Myanmar at 29.88%. Among employed women, many of them work in the informal sector, especially those in rural areas. According to the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) Work Plan 2021-2025, women make up only 45% of workers in Southeast Asia, and most of them are working in low-skilled, low-paid, and informal jobs with limited social security and employment benefits. Under the ASEAN energy sector, only 8% of women are employed in the industry, highlighting the disproportionate gender ratio. In extend, the label of household-and-caregiving expert for women is also shown in the energy sector, where they often serve as the ‘energy managers’ in the household, dealing with the payment of electricity, water, choosing more efficient and affordable cookstoves, where limited technical skills are required to complete the tasks. Furthermore, high-paying formal jobs, including those in the energy sector, typically require science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills. Jobs in STEM are stereotyped as masculine, creating internalised gender bias in women’s interest to take on jobs in the field. There is an implicit perception that men would be more successful in STEM sectors and that women lack the technical capabilities. Moreover, women in male-dominated workplace tend to experience discrimination, and the persisting gender bias leads to discomfort for women working in non-traditional jobs. Unpaid work further influences this disparity, as women employers often view these responsibilities as a disadvantage. Unfortunately, the existing label could also be explained by the patriarchal culture dictating traditional gender roles, reinforcing the idea that household and caregiving duties are primarily a woman’s duty. This stigma is keeping women out from various economic opportunities, higher-paying jobs, and political decision-making processes, in issues such as energy, that would greatly impact their livelihoods.

The Education Gap

Moving beyond economic inequality, women still face barriers in accessing qualified education and skill development, preventing them from entering formal high-paying sectors and leadership roles, especially in the energy sector. Again, patriarchal norms also influence educational systems, creating gender bias. This includes skills attainment and the reinforcement that contribute to the view and being viewed as lesser-than man in educational system. A comparative study done in Indonesia, Malaysia, and several South Asian countries also found that government-issued school textbooks contain gender bias, such as mostly showing men in prestigious jobs and women working in domestic labour, showing a systematic underrepresentation of women. It also led to a strong belief that men were more inclined and “natural” in mathematics than women, discouraging women from taking STEM subjects such as engineering for higher studies. On average, only 19.3% of women graduated with a STEM degree in ASEAN, of which often pursue pharmacy, medicine, and biology as opposed to energy-related pipelines such as physics and engineering. The choosing of these subjects is related to the social norms that channel women into careers that are extensions of their domestic responsibilities of caregiving. Although the number of girls who complete schooling at all levels of education is higher than boys in the ASEAN region, many young women struggle to access the job market and secure formal jobs, including in the energy sector, which typically require STEM skills. The existing barriers to ASEAN women’s participation in STEM education and employment can be divided into two categories: personal and cultural barriers, as well as structural and systemic barriers, as shown in the graph below (Figure 1).