Solar is one of the rare industries that brings together fieldwork, engineering, finance and administration: as many playing fields as possible for all genders and all abilities. As a young industry, born without specific degree requirements, it escaped the traditional glass ceiling of engineering. Solar is the most gender-balanced renewable energy sector in the world, with 40% of jobs held by women according to IRENA, far ahead of construction or fossil fuels. Women access real pivotal positions, as project leads rather than just assistants. Finally, it is a work of conviction: we carry values of sustainability shared by all genders.
This diversity is one of the reasons our industry is so resilient. Solar speaks to everyone and can therefore be built by everyone. An industry that reflects its customers understands their needs better and inspires trust. Through the regulatory cycles our sector has faced in France, I have seen that diverse teams bring different perspectives, detect risks earlier and imagine a wider range of solutions. Diversity also fuels innovation. Solar also creates local jobs that cannot be relocated. These jobs must be accessible to every profile in the region, and that is precisely what makes it such an attractive and innovative industry.
I am a woman, with no engineering degree and no political mandate, the daughter of factory workers. A recycled human from another industry. In 2026, as a federation president, I arrived at a ministerial meeting. The secretary offered me a seat on the side to take notes and only offered coffee to my male colleagues. A scene straight out of the 1950s.
How do you overcome these barriers? By learning on rooftops, in the heart of crises. In the beginning, I simply translated technical texts into plain language for my ex-colleagues on social media, before realizing that my voice had an impact and remembering one thing: no one will hand you your voice. You have to go and take it.
That experience also shaped how I approach my work every day. One observation stands out: men are hired and listened to based on their potential, women only on proof. I see it every day: with equal skills, women are harder to get hired, even though one in three companies says their best team builder and knowledge transmitter is a woman.
My answer has always been the same: competence as a shield. Preparing every file better than anyone else. Knowing the regulations word for word. Not trying to convince the sceptics, but moving forward: results speak for themselves. And humour too. I wear Timberlands more often than a suit, and I own it.
Visible women leaders are finally emerging in French solar: founders, CEOs, heads of installation companies. This was rare ten years ago. At the same time, the very definition of leadership is evolving: less posturing, more coordination and collective intelligence.
During a recent industry crisis, I set up a group of 300 angry business leaders, including five women. Those five women channeled the most vindictive voices toward concrete, non-violent actions and got the government to consult field players within days. Women’s networks are getting organized, but women remain underrepresented in industry governance bodies. The journey continues.
Throughout my own career, mentorship has not come from a single person. My mentors are the people in the field: the pioneers, the most experienced, the makers of our industry. They are the ones I learn from every day. In return, I hope to be a mentor myself: opening the way, showing that other figures can emerge without the expected suit.
At the federation, we have institutionalized this transmission. Our working groups operate as collective mentorship, where everyone passes on knowledge according to their field of expertise. Mentorship is not always one-on-one; sometimes it is a relay passed across an entire industry, to all the curious and passionate, whatever their age or gender.
To me, inclusion is built into the very mechanisms of an organization. Who gets a seat at the table? Our federation is open to the entire value chain, not based on membership fees. Who gets to speak? Open working groups, consultations before every position we take. Who gets hired? My solar recruitment firm offers anonymous applications whenever all genders are represented. Who gets the means to work? I just founded an association for the inclusion of women in the field: adapted PPE, tools and workstations, so skills can be deployed on equal footing. At every level, the mechanism does the work that good intentions alone cannot.
That is also why I believe inclusion has to move beyond good intentions and symbolic actions. Driving diversity, equity and inclusion at executive level remains challenging. In a sector facing permanent regulatory crises, DEI always comes second. We will deal with it “when things get better”. But things never get better.
There is also the box-ticking trap of a photo, a panel or a one-day event without changing the underlying mechanisms. We also lack data. Our industry already struggles to count its workers, let alone count them by gender. Without figures, progress cannot be objectified or measured. Finally, being a woman who carries this subject, I am suspected of preaching for my own cause, while a man saying the same thing is heard as a strategist.
Inclusion is also about providing people with the practical means to succeed. First, provide the material means to work: adapted PPE, tools and workstations. You cannot retain talent that is poorly equipped. Second, offer real positions: project leads with responsibilities and prospects, not assistants for life. Retention comes through perspective.
Third, measure pay and promotion gaps, because without measurement, no correction is possible. Fourth, adapt without stigmatizing: remote work and flexible hours must be accessible to all genders, otherwise flexibility becomes a trap for women’s careers. Finally, show trajectories. If no one “like you” has ever moved up, you leave.
For me, diversity is also about social background and the field. Can solar be a social elevator? Yes, and that is its strength.
I am living proof. Solar offers jobs accessible without long degrees, real opportunities for career changers, and local jobs that cannot be relocated. But the elevator must work for everyone, including on rooftops. That is why I founded an association dedicated to women in the field: adapted PPE, tools and workstations, so skills can be deployed on equal footing. Inclusion does not stop at the office door; it must climb all the way up to the rooftops.
If I could give one piece of advice to a young woman entering the solar and renewable energy industry today, it would be this: DARE. Dare to enter an industry whose codes are being written right now. This is the moment to arrive, while the sector is taking shape. Dare to come with your atypical profile: career change, no engineering degree, modest background… that is precisely what will allow you to see what others cannot.
Dare to go into the field and learn from the makers, because technical credibility is your best passport. And dare without waiting for an invitation, because no one will invite you. Solar needs you, exactly as you are.
Floriane de Brabandère is the Founding President of the Fédération Nationale de l’Énergie Solaire (FNES), the federation representing the entire French solar value chain. Recognized as a representative voice of the industry and a strong advocate for small businesses, she combines a deep understanding of business and market challenges with daily hands-on practice in the field, where she still works. She embodies a new generation of leaders bringing a fresh perspective and shaking up institutional communication, with a self-declared specialty: making technical and regulatory subjects accessible to everyone. Operational and a multi-entrepreneur, co-author of a legislative proposal, she champions common-sense solar: solar that serves people, defends the right to produce and consume clean, citizen-driven and local electricity, and creates value in local communities. Among her priority battles: employment in the solar industry and inclusion in its trades.
Interested in joining Floriane de Brabandère and other women industry leaders and experts at Women in Solar+ Europe? Find out more: www.wiseu.network
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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