CWEA leaders of our pretreatment, pollution prevention, and stormwater communities. (photo by Salvador Ochoa)
CWEA and WEF are undertaking large, strategic initiatives to bolster diversity, equity, and inclusion within the water and wastewater profession. WEF is rolling out new initiatives, and CWEA has developed JEDI-Openers – stories about diversity that can help leaders start meetings with a short diversity moment.
We recently pulled our membership demographic data and found some interesting results. The profession is changing and slowly becoming more diverse but it continues to be a slow process. CWEA membership data shows the workforce continues to be mostly white and mostly male. CWEA has approximately 10,000 members, and demographic data has been provided by 3,300 members.
There is no statewide water workforce data available that we are currently aware of. Several agencies are gather diversity data about their workforce and there are data initiatives underway.
If you are a member and would like to get involved in CWEA or WEF’s DEI projects, please raise your hand and volunteer for one of our work groups. Contact Alec Mackie on CWEA staff.
| Row Label | Count | Percentage |
| Asian | 280 | 8% |
| Black/African American | 123 | 4% |
| Caucasian | 1769 | 54% |
| Hispanic/Latinx | 949 | 29% |
| Native American | 50 | 1% |
| Other | 73 | 2% |
| Pacific Islander | 60 | 2% |
| Row Label | Percentage | |
| Female | 15% | |
| Male | 84% | |
| Identify as non-binary |
<1% |
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