Yesterday, we celebrated Mothers’ Day — and, no, the apostrophe is correct in the plural rather than singular designation. That’s because it was the entire community of women, not just individual moms, who were originally celebrated in the 1870s by Julia Ward Howe. Howe cried out for women to take control of politics from violent men who saw war and violence as the sole answer to disputes. Mothers’ Day, as social historian Heather Cox Richardson chronicles, “was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.” Reflecting that another war was “a return to barbarism,” Howe mused that issues “might easily have been settled without bloodshed.” It’s interesting that this bit of historical female reaffirmation comes at a time in which the United Nations is asking women to rise up — a part of a movement for clean energy. Lisa Kurbiel, head of the joint SDG fund Secretariat, argues that, “If we want the clean energy transition to be truly transformative, women must be at the forefront.” To do so, however, means that we need to provide women with tools to embrace clean energy. It’s more difficult than it sounds. A bit of a history lesson is merited here. The Civil War was a time in which men left their homes and families to play at battles and returned — if at all — maimed and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Howe wondered, “Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone know and bear the cost?’” Out of war came “a new sense of empowerment,” Richardson explains. As caretakers of homesteads while men were away in bloody, mutilating battles, women had been mistresses of the coin, controlling everything financially-related, from bonds to taxes, fundraising, farm budgets, harvest negotiations and more. Women expected to contribute to society after the war ended, but that collective hope was crushed by the 1869 Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which incorporated Black men as citizens but failed to add women’s rights to the new rule of law. Soon after, women organized the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. It was time to have their voices heard in the workings of the US federal government, they proclaimed. Women did not have to accept “proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror,” Howe exclaimed. Doesn’t a similar sentiment have meaning today for women caught in global turmoil over the transition to clean energy? Kurbiel explains that, at its core, the clean energy transition is about more than technology. It is “also about people: who designs these systems, who leads the investments behind them, and who benefits from the opportunities they create.” Kurbiel notes that one UN priority is to help de-risk investments in renewable energy. Strategic investment can be made by women and for women to accelerate the shift toward sustainable energy. That’s important, she emphasizes, as “over the coming decades, trillions of dollars will flow into renewable infrastructure, technologies, and markets.” Of course, Kurbiel is not blind to the need to empower women. “As we shape this new energy future,” she states, “we have an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure women are not simply participants in this transformation but leaders of it. Because when women lead, the transition becomes not only greener, but more inclusive, more innovative and more sustainable for everyone.” Empowering women in the renewable energy marketplace makes sense as a part of a longer process, but this perspective has a glaring gap: women need opportunities to learn about renewable energy in order to fully embrace and fight for it systemically. Education, unfortunately, continues to enforce cultural, gender-based physics and technology instructional segregation so that many women do not come away with the knowledge base necessary to compare renewable from fossil fuel power. Taking Mom out to dinner on her special day of the year is lovely but not particularly forward-looking. Maybe we should have changed up our Mothers’ Day celebrations so they included Mom in an EV test drive, invited her to feel the cool air of a heat pump, or took her to a solar panel installation and explained how solar is part of a distributed rather than centralized grid. Educate Women into the Clean Energy Transition I was honored during my post-doctorate work to train some of the next generation of teachers. Many were non-traditional students, and I incorporated an instructional approach that would meet them where they were as learners, then move them upward toward specialized knowledge. A similar approach can be taken to bring women into the clean energy fold — and it can work with men and any kind of learner, really. Access prior knowledge: Use pre-assessments to determine what women do and do not know about clean energy in all its fascinating dimensions. Adapt instruction to fill in gaps of knowledge: Structure individualized learning activities so that women can find meaning in such an abstract concept like energy. Online games are a start, as are webquests, heterogeneous groupings where students teach each other, Jeopardy-like competitions, and experiments that showcase clean energy. Make learning relevant: Describe how energy provides the power to make things in everyday life work. Give them hands-on activities in which they interact up-front-and-personal with clean energy delivery. Have them conduct an energy audit to find out how much energy typical dwellings use in comparison with clean energy sources. Require them to do internships in which they use clean energy systems. These are just a handful of the wide array of instructional techniques that would speak to women who want to learn about the energy sources that power our lives. And many women are already walking the talk — a May 2025 study from the London School of Economics and Political Science reveals that women in France emit 26% less carbon than men with their diet and transport usage. What can be Done to Make Clean Energy More Digestible to Female Voters? The prevailing populist drive in today’s global arena is not kind to the rationale behind the clean energy transition. The New York Times yesterday cited a progressive candidate who described “a terrible ski season and record-high temperatures” while on the campaign trail but “did not name the climate crisis directly.” Editorial writer Matthew T. Huber, professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University, suggests that “voters who already prioritize climate action are firmly in the Democratic camp and highly educated and affluent.” Maybe that’s the problem then, right? It’s time to educate and empower voters who didn’t have the opportunities of higher education and generational transfer of wealth, especially women. Are there organizations that are already dedicated to infusing women with the tools for making informed decisions about clean energy? Sure there are; in fact, there are numerous women’s energy advocacy groups. WRISE drives the transition to an equitable energy future by championing the advancement of all women across the renewable and sustainable energy industries. RMI’s Energy Transition Academy (ETA) Global Women in Clean Energy Fellowship aims to catalyze a more inclusive and equitable clean energy workforce. The Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment (WCEE) has helped women in energy and environment advance their careers and grow their networks. The Women’s Energy Network prides itself on being a good business and community partner within the energy industry. Generation 180 is a national nonprofit working to inspire and equip people to take action on clean energy in their homes and communities. Final Thoughts As Richardson suggests, the contemporary version of Mother’s Day can be a pathway to the past and “remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.” The clean energy transition is one of the most significant economic transformations of our time. Kurbiel relates how clean energy is much more than an “an environmental imperative; it is an economic opportunity.” She emphasizes the financial dimensions of clean energy which have the potential to lower risks and mobilize capital to “unlock entire ecosystems of entrepreneurs and businesses that are ready to lead the transition.” By opening up such ecosystems, the financial community would remove structural barriers so that women have an easier time “accessing finance, building businesses and scaling innovations.” To do so would expand women’s economic opportunity while concurrently strengthening the entire clean energy ecosystem. Giving women more opportunities to make the clean energy transition relevant to their lives would then extend to other sectors. Fighting back against global warming and its related damage. Protecting farmland and soil. Nature-based plantings along shorelines and local roads. Better managing stormwater. Helping prepare residents to withstand extreme weather. It will take a helping hand, though. Let’s make those doors open so that we all are enriched, shall we? Resources “Democrats don’t have to campaign on climate change anymore.” Matthew T. Huber. New York Times. May 9, 2026 Letters from an American. Heather Cox Richardson. May 9, 2026. “The future of energy is female…and renewable.” Lisa Kurbiel. UN Sustainable Development Group. April 6, 2026.
+51 others
