Rising Into The Water Sector – A Perspective From A Young Woman Of Color

By Sahil Chaini, Customer Success Leader, Transcend

Over the past few years, we have had national and international conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have heard about the importance of diversity in the workforce and how it drives productivity and innovation. According to a 2018 Boston Consulting Group Study called How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation, companies with more diverse management teams had 19% higher innovation revenue, which comes from products and services launched within three years of the study, than companies with less diverse leadership.

As a young woman of colour in the water industry, I wanted to dive deeper into the current state of affairs, both in water and in the general workforce. As an industry, we have a long way to go. According to the 2018 Brookings Renewing the water workforce report, “although women make up 46.8 percent of workers across all occupations nationally, they account for only 14.9 percent of the water workforce.” Women are also severely under-represented in water leadership positions, with only 6% of water utility CEOs being women, according to the Brookings report. Black and Asian workers together make up only 11.5% of the water workforce, compared to 18% of the national workforce.