Inmaculada Serrano discussed her professional experience in the ‘Women and Power’ lectures, an initiative by the Region of Murcia Organización de Mujeres Empresarias y Profesionales (Organisation of Business and Professional Women, OMEP).

Hidrogea’s new CEO talked about her professional experience as a pioneering woman in the water industry, leading work teams made up mostly of men.

Since March, Serrano, who manages a staff of 480 people, has been joined by a woman as plant operator. Hidrogea makes every effort to promote traditionally masculine jobs among women by organising courses and training sessions. The CEO stressed the importance of ‘generating a social revolution, but from the bottom up. A business culture and corporate strategy geared towards equal opportunities needs to be developed’.

In the case of Hidrogea, the company has implemented a number of measures to promote equality between men and women. In 2009, it put in place the first Equality Plan, which introduced a number of measures, such as raising staff awareness through training and workshops and helping balance work and personal life by adapting the working day and introducing flexible timetables. In the SUEZ Group, to which Hidrogea belongs, a number of commitments have also been adopted in this respect, such as increasing the number of women in leadership positions by 50%.

Hidrogea is not only committed to equality but also to job security. Eighty-seven per cent of women have permanent contracts and predominate in the Financial, Legal and Communication departments, where all the members of staff are women. Today their presence in more technical areas such as Operations is also being strengthened through training courses.

Inmaculada Serrano talked about leadership, shared responsibility, the struggle for equality, but concluded that ‘this is not achieved without courage and overcoming the fears we have as women’.