Understanding how and why electricity access has variable gendered impacts in the context of off-grid electrification

Understanding how and why electricity access has variable gendered impacts in the context of off-grid electrification

3^rd December 2024, Zoom, 1-2pm

Vicky Kasprowicz, Research Fellow in Energy Demand, University of Sussex Business School

It has long been assumed in much policy and practice that delivering United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 (access to sustainable energy for all) will also help deliver UN SDG 5 (gender equality and empowerment). But empirical evidence on the gendered impacts of electricity access is mixed: in some cases transformative, in some case reinforcing or worsening existing unequal gendered power hierarchies. Due to these insights, there are many calls for further research to better understand the relationship between electricity access and gender. In this seminar, we will explore the benefits of viewing this relationship through a performative lens. To achieve this, we will discuss what a performative lens might look like by drawing on insights from the gender studies and social practice theory literatures. Using this framing, we will explore what appears to happen to people’s experiences of gender when electricity arrives for the first time in two Latin American case study areas. The first study takes place in rural Mayan-influenced communities in Alta Verapaz and Petén, Guatemala, and the second takes place in Wayuu settlements in La Guajira, Colombia.

Victoria Kasprowicz is a Research Fellow in Energy Demand at the University of Sussex. She has been working in the energy sector since 2013 when she helped to create a pay-as-you-go solar energy services company for low resource communities in Guatemala and Colombia. Victoria completed an ESRC-funded interdisciplinary doctorate in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. Her research explored how we can better understand the relationship between gender and energy access in the context of off-grid electrification programmes in Latin America. Victoria also holds a MSc in Development Management and a BSc in Psychology.