The Gender Data Gap in Energy — and Why it Matters
This March, we're marking Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2026 by highlighting how data and evidence can drive a more just and inclusive energy transition for all. Under SEforALL’s Gender & Youth programme, we #EmPowerHer by closing gender data gaps so that policies, investments and programmes reflect women’s realities and leadership in the energy sector.
Gender data gaps in sustainable development
Sex-disaggregated data is essential to understanding how women and men are differently affected by energy access, affordability, and employment opportunities. It helps track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 7 on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030 and SDG 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and informs programme design, policy interventions, and investments that can close gender gaps in the energy sector.
Yet, significant gaps remain. According to UN Women (2022), on average only 42% of the data required to monitor gender dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is available. Out of 193 countries, 136 countries fall before the 40% mark, and 93 countries report less than 25% availability. The 2022 Sustainable Development Goals Report further shows that out of 32 global indicators requiring sex-disaggrgegated data, only 21 were sufficiently available in most countries, and only seven met sex- and age-disaggregation requirements.
SDG 7 is among six SDGs with no gender-specific indicators. This gap limits how countries account for women’s contributions to and benefits from the energy sector. As a result, energy planning risks overlooking the realities faced by women and girls, from unpaid care burdens linked to energy poverty to low participation in energy careers and entrepreneurship.
Data as a cornerstone of a just and inclusive energy transition
SEforALL’s Data & Evidence work addresses these critical gaps by strengthening gender-responsive data collection and use in energy policy, planning, and implementation.
The report Improving energy data to enhance gender equality highlights how investing in sex-disaggregated data not only clarifies women’s energy access needs but also drives more inclusive investments. Accurate data empowers policymakers to design targeted interventions, including expanding clean cooking programmes, financing women-led energy businesses, and fostering equitable employment pathways. The report calls for collaborative efforts among national governments, statistics offices, development partners, and the private sector to standardize methodologies, define gender indicators, and embed these into energy data systems worldwide.
SEforALL’s publication The gender-energy nexus in the AI era: Challenges and opportunities explores how technological innovation can drive gender equality. Artificial Intelligence (AI) could accelerate progress on 134 of 169 SDG targets, yet SDG 5 has the fewest AI enabled-use cases, with only 10 out of more than 600 cases identified. If current trends persist, 341 million women and girls will remain without electricity by 2030, 85% of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Without closing digital gender gaps and ensuring women have the technical skills to design, use, and govern AI systems, these tools risk reinforcing, rather than reducing, the barriers women face in the energy transition.
Finally, SEforALL connects gender, energy, and fashion in the Threads of transformation: Fashion, energy & women at the intersection of climate action, to demonstrate how one of the world’s most energy-intensive industries has specific gendered impacts. Responsible for 2-8% of global carbon emissions and nearly 20% of global wastewater, the fashion sector consumes roughly one trillion kWh of electricity annually. Women make up about 60% of the global fashion workforce, yet often occupy the lowest-paid, least-secure jobs. Empowering women-led enterprises and ensuring equitable access to clean energy across supply chains can transform fashion from a high-emission industry into a force for accelerating progress on SDG 7 and SDG 5.
Powering a data-driven, gender-responsive energy future
From improving the quality of global gender-energy data to integrating equality considerations into AI and industry, SEforALL’s Gender & Youth programme is turning data into action. Closing gender data gaps is about ensuring that women and girls are empowered as meaningful participants to the sustainable energy transition.
In achieving rights, justice, and action for all women and girls, the path forward is clear: better data makes better decisions. And better decisions mean a more sustainable energy future.
