Untapped Reserves.

• Author: Rick, Katharina
• Position: BACK TO BUSINESS - Gender balance of employees in the oil and gas industry

WOMEN ACCOUNT for a far smaller share of employees in the oil and gas industry--roughly one-fifth--than they do in most other industries. There is a range of potential actions that can be taken to address the imbalance, according to a report from the World Petroleum Council and The Boston Consulting Group, which is based on proprietary research that included in-depth interviews with more than 60 male and female senior industry executives, a survey of approximately 2,000 male and female industry professionals, and primary quantitative data provided by major international and national oil companies that collectively account for 1.9 trillion dollars in revenues and more than 25% of industry employment.

The study examines gender balance at three stages of women's career development--entry level, midcareer, and senior management--and draws on different perspectives to look into the challenges that women and companies interested in advancing gender balance face at each stage. Critically, the report also provides pragmatic recommendations for how these challenges can be addressed.

Indeed, the oil and gas industry faces substantial challenges in the years ahead and will need to be able to attract and retain the best talent it can if it hopes to surmount them. This means, necessarily, a greater focus on women, a segment the industry long has underemphasized. The hope is that this report, by providing greater insight into the status quo and identifying a potential path forward for these companies, can help the industry succeed on this front.

The report is to be updated every three years in conjunction with the triennial World Petroleum Congress. This will provide the sector with information against which companies can benchmark their performance related to gender balance and monitor their progress in this area.

The percentage of women in the industry's workforce drops over time and falls particularly sharply--from 25% to 17%--between the middle-management and senior-leadership career stages. This trend will not change unless CEOs make gender diversity a higher strategic priority.

Although men and women start out on an equal footing, women rarely reach the top of the organization. This is not owing to a lack of ambition. Rather, it largely is due to the fact that, among women who have spent many years in the industry, relatively few have been offered the technical and operating roles that their male colleagues have, positions that allow employees to...