The international coalition aims to promote career opportunities for women in HVACR
Numerous international organizations have launched an initiative to advance career opportunities for women in the cooling sector. The International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC) was created to advance engagement, promote career opportunities, and increase overall participation of women in the cooling sector, which includes refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP). The initiative is led by the World Refrigeration Day (WRD) Secretariat and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction, in cooperation with many international organizations, including ASHRAE, IIR, and Women in HVACR.
Although women make up half of the world’s population, they are significantly and visibly underrepresented in the RACHP sector in all roles. INWIC seeks to reverse that trend. It is doing so while recognizing that there are many excellent initiatives and structures established by different partners that are promoting women’s engagement in the RACHP field. However, more cooperation and information exchange at the global level is needed to link these individual efforts and make them even more meaningful and impactful, especially in developing countries.