The energy transition is driving a new wave of innovation and entrepreneurship. The advance of renewable energies, the development of clean technologies and the search for more sustainable models are generating opportunities to create disruptive solutions. However, despite this transformational momentum, the presence of women in these fields remains a minority one.
The World Economic Forum, in a report drawn up in collaboration with LinkedIn (2025), confirms that female innovation-geared talent has been on the rise in recent years. Even so, women only account for 28% of the STEM workforce, 24.4% of managerial positions and barely 12.2% of senior executive positions.
A similar situation besets entrepreneurship. According to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (2025), interest in creating a company is high: four out of ten Spanish women (39%) have considered setting up a business. However, there is still a gap between intention and action. Although Spain is one of the European countries with the best conditions in terms of education, financing and digitisation, the number of women at the helm of innovative businesses remains low.
The lack of funding (32%), a fear of failure (31%) and the scarcity of financial resources (27%) continue to constitute the main obstacles, together with a more intangible factor: self-confidence. A third of women admit that their lack of self-confidence prevents them from starting the ball rolling, a figure that rises to 45% among millennials.
According to Carmen García, Start-up and Fund Investment Coordinator at Enagás Emprende, “raising capital isn’t just a matter of money, it also requires leadership. It’s important for female entrepreneurs to be on top of their numbers, define their story properly and choose partners aligned with their purpose. And I’d add a very important factor: the advocating of women’s leadership as a distinctive value, not an exception”. In her opinion, female entrepreneurs bring a more diverse, more collaborative and often more sustainable approach to growth, which is what the innovation ecosystem needs.
Although Spain is one of the European countries with the best conditions in terms of education, financing and digitisation, the number of women at the helm of innovative businesses remains low
In Spain, the Afi consultancy firm and Red Eléctrica estimate that the gender gap in innovative entrepreneurship takes 5.300 billion euros off the national GDP. For every man who undertakes technological and R&D-intensive projects, only 0.36 women do so. This is a loss of talent that impoverishes not only the economy, but also the creativity of a country aspiring to lead the green transition.
It’s interesting to observe that, when the barriers are removed, the results follow. In sectors such as energy, in which the technical and regulatory complexity requires collaborative leadership, women are introducing new management styles that are more cross-cutting, more purpose-driven and more sustainability-conscious.
Enagás, for example, has been promoting an open innovation model that combines technology, entrepreneurship and sustainability for a number of years. Its Enagás Emprende programme, a corporate venturing vehicle focused on the pre-seed and seed phases, invests in start-ups that develop solutions for the energy transition. These are chiefly geared towards the development of renewable gases such as hydrogen and biomethane.
Women are introducing new management styles that are more cross-cutting, more purpose-driven and more sustainability-conscious
This programme provides an environment in which technological innovation and female leadership can converge, thereby promoting women’s active participation. In the energy field, opening up these doors has a multiplying effect: every project led by a woman generates role models and changes the perceptions of the entire industry.
According to María Ochoa, Enagás Emprende’s Start-up Portfolio Manager, “there’s still a long way to go for female entrepreneurship in the energy sector. One of the main barriers facing women is their low representation in STEM profiles, ones that are in high demand in this field, restricting their access to strategic roles and the creation of new companies. At Enagás we support innovation led by women, fostering collaboration with start-ups and giving visibility to female projects”.
The most effective programmes for promoting the leadership of women in innovation share three common features. Firstly, they make the talent visible, with real references in technical, managerial and foundational positions. Secondly, they connect women to investment and mentoring networks, thus minimising the professional isolation that still persists in the STEM sectors. Thirdly, they evaluate their results, gauging the impact and scalability rather than just focusing on the rhetoric of equality.
Examples such as Enagás Emprende and the International Energy Agency’s Women in Energy programme demonstrate how public-private partnerships can generate more inclusive environments for innovation. In this regard, the European Commission’s Women TechEU grants support dozens of technological start-ups set up by women each year.
These programmes encourage the participation of women in the technology and energy sectors and put essential values such as cooperation and teamwork into practice.
Ana Adalid, an intrapreneur and member of the Enagás Emprende team, declared that “of all the lessons learnt, I’d emphasise the importance of collaboration, as sharing doubts and experiences not only provides support, it sometimes unlocks solutions that you haven’t seen before. And teamwork, as two or more heads think better than one. And, finally, the ability to improvise, because being able to adapt can make all the difference along the way”.
According to McKinsey & Company, if Europe were to double the presence of women in the technology sector to 45%, between €260 billion and €600 billion could be added to the European Union’s GDP by 2027.
There are also signs of confidence among women themselves. The World Economic Forum estimates that one in four female entrepreneurs around the world hope to scale up their business within the next five years.
The figures and programmes reflect real structural progress. The talent is there, but it needs space to fully develop. What was referred to as equal opportunities a decade ago is now being addressed in terms of competitiveness and sustainability.
