Women a vital source of 'energy' in oil & gas sector

A man waits as his container is filled with petrol by an attendant at a Sinopec station in central China's Hubei province.

The energy sector in the Middle East has hit upon a rich resource - women with high-end science and management degrees, skills and experience.

This resource will prove to be particularly invaluable in the region, which is looking for diverse experts to bring in renewed strategy and business benefits amid the current economic climate and the energy threat.

In this scenario, the UAE government's unwavering support to entrench local women in the workforce, across all corporate levels, is certain to change the dynamics of the oil, gas and non-conventional industry sectors, to making it more diversified and vibrant.

Challenges
While various steps have been taken to promote gender diversity, the oil and gas industry is still struggling with exceptionally low female-to-male ratio when compared to other fields of work. In fact, this sector has the lowest representation of female professionals among all sectors.

A professional networking site has found that, worldwide, women make up just 26.7 per cent of all its oil and energy industry profiles, which is the lowest. Healthcare had the largest percentage of women, at about 59.8 per cent, and IT accounted for 30.6 per cent.

In the GCC region, women's economic participation rate is currently at less than one-third level. This must be brought up to four-fifths - as is the case in most developed countries.

Numerous surveys conducted within the GCC indicate that one of the top challenges for women in reaching senior management positions is limited social acceptance and lack of support from family.

Nature of the job also affects women's participation in the workforce. For instance, most people assume that women would face significant difficulties in male-oriented industries such as oil and gas, construction or technology.

Fortunately, hindrance to women's participation in the energy business is largely socio-psychological in nature and the challenges are not insurmountable. With strong institutional support, we can take great strides into a gender-just corporate future. Organisations can highlight the importance and benefits of diversity as an appropriate way of attracting the best talent.

State-owned corporations and multinationals are now working out ways to institutionalise gender balance as well as train female employees effectively, by using a multi-pronged approach in opening up opportunities for women.

Early education and training
Gender inclusion needs to be a grassroots effort, particularly when looking at the quality of education in the sciences.

A series of company-specific strategies and programmes can be implemented to get involved from the early stages of a student's academic life. These include graduate programmes for students that offer chance of gaining diverse experience in upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of oil and gas industries.

Women's integration programmes can be introduced to attract female students to the energy industry. National oil companies can also partner with universities to receive a steady stream of qualified national graduates.

Policy support
There also needs to be a push for women to take on leadership roles. In this context, pursuing gender equality, as a part of strong corporate governance practices, needs to be a critical policy priority for many companies. For instance, Schneider Electric believes that team diversity and gender balance is a prerequisite for successful business. For several years now, the company has actively committed to integrating women and increasing their representation to 40 per cent within the company, both locally and globally.

Many companies now practice similar inclusive policies that encourage women to rise through the ranks.

Mentoring - break the glass ceiling
Despite such policy initiatives, the best source of encouragement and guidance for women to achieve success is mentorship, especially from senior female role models. Besides building skills, a strong mentorship programme can essentially aid in shattering the glass ceiling.

The energy sector is continually evolving, and is perhaps one of the most disruptive industries in the world today. For aspiring women, this environment can create game-changing opportunities, provided we invest our time and efforts in fine-tuning our education system and creating a supportive corporate infrastructure.

The writer is HR vice-president, Gulf countries and Pakistan at Schneider Electric. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the newspaper's policies.