In this episode, Carol addresses key questions about women's and young girls' lives worldwide. Through her perspective as an electricity infrastructure development expert, and founder of a start-up promoting sustainable mobility for women, she delves into issues that are not only relevant to the energy sector, but also speak to the wider gender inequalities impacting women's lives. The episode centres around the following questions: How is transportation connected with gender gaps in society? What does it change when women are involved in planning infrastructure projects? How can access to mobility transform individual lives and community structures?
Carol's expertise led her and Giuseppe Zago, EDI Officer at the EUI, to discuss the importance of looking at gender inequalities from an intersectional perspective, highlighting the extent to which accessibility to transportation and mobility, social and economic inequalities, and race play in shaping women's lives, both in African and European countries.
"A minority of women have autonomy over their mobility. Consequently, when seeking financing, infrastructure, or transportation, they encounter obstacles that further widen the (gender) gap for African women," highlights Carol. "Access to infrastructure is very culturally imbedded. Empowerment does not just come from changing laws and policy but also from education that will actually then transition and transform culture," she adds.
Carol aims to challenge gender barriers and stereotypes also through her work as a researcher at the African School of Regulation (ASR), an initiative launched in partnership with the EUI and other institutions to work towards providing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy for Africa, and making available a repository of resources in energy regulation and policy.
Touching upon her personal experience as a Black woman in Europe, and in Florence, Carol stressed the complex ways in which race and gender shaped her professional and everyday life, oftentimes amounting to forms of discrimination, sexism, and racism.
Listen to the episode on: SoundCloud, MixCloud, and YouTube.
Learn more about International Women's Day 2024 at the EUI.
Episode details:
Host: Giuseppe Zago, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the EUI
Guest: Carol Awuor Ofafa, Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre
This initiative was produced in collaboration with the EUI's researcher-led web radio, Radio Cavolo. Do you have a question about the podcast? Drop a line to [email protected].