Why Green Is Your Color: A Woman’s Guide to a Sustainable Career

From the United States Department of Labor

Ensuring women are prepared to succeed in a 21st century changing economy is critical to the financial stability of women, their families, and our country. Why Green Is Your Color: A Woman’s Guide to a Sustainable Career is a comprehensive manual designed to assist women with job training and career development as they enter into innovative and nontraditional jobs. The guide also provides vulnerable women a pathway to higher paying jobs, and serves as a tool to help fight job segregation. It offers women resources and information they need to enter and succeed in jobs in the emerging green economy. The guide was created to help women at all stages of their careers — whether they are newly entering the workforce, transitioning to new careers, or returning to the workforce — identify and take advantage of opportunities in the clean energy economy. It will help training providers, educators, counselors, and other workforce development professionals promote the recruitment and retention of women in green career paths.

The guide is organized into the following chapters:

  • Introduction to the Guide
  • Why Is Green Good for Women
  • Green Occupations: A Look at What’s Out There
  • Educating Yourself for a Green Career
  • Finding Your Green Job
  • Green Entrepreneurship
  • Women Succeeding in Green Jobs
  • Overcoming Challenges on Your Career Path
  • Planning Your Green Career
  • Glossary of Terms

Check it out and then check back here. Was this guide helpful? Or more of the same?

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Women’s Role in the Clean Energy Economy

I have attended many Clean Tech conferences in the southwest over the last six months. Frankly, I wish I saw more women in the room. So this post on EcoAid’s website really resonated with me, so I am sharing it with you. It’s a juicy topic. Please join in on the conversation by leaving your comments below. And if you are a woman working in clean tech now, what do you know now that you didn’t know before that could help other women wanting to enter the clean energy sector? — Carolyn

Women across the nation are preparing to play an integral role in the green economy, and the United States will need their help if we’re going to pull ourselves out of the recession and compete in the new economy on a global scale. CAP’s Jorge Madrid has the story in this repost.

It’s true that men have been hit the hardest in the recession as far an unemployment numbers go, but we will need to seize the opportunity to diversify the future workforce in a way that will incorporate all workers in all areas of the clean energy economy—including those where women have been traditionally underrepresented.

Women in Burlington, Vermont are training for careers in the fields of green construction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency as part of the Vermont Works for Women project. Women Going Green in Atlanta, Georgia is educating women in management and entrepreneurial opportunities in the clean energy economy. And young women in Los Angeles, California are receiving science, technology, engineering, and math education through the Infrastructure Academy, which will prepare them for high-paying, high-demand careers developing the next generation of clean energy technology.

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The Big Transition: Making the shift to a greener career

So many women are interested in trading in their conventional jobs for a greener career these days. So much so we started a Facebook Group called “Women in Green Jobs” so women could talk to each other and learn how to make the Big Transition. Tracey de Morsella at Green Economy Post, a blog that I subscribe to, writes a series aimed at helping you do just that. Her Green MBA Success Series highlights Green MBA graduates to uncover what steps they took to transition to green careers using their degrees. This post features Robin Connell, Manager of Sustainability Programs at Del Monte Foods. Find out how she went from a career in media marketing to one in sustainability.

Read this interview with Robin Connell on Green Economy Post.

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