For years, the energy sector has been male-centric and has come under increasing scrutiny for lagging behind other industries on gender parity. New research shows that women still occupy less than one-fifth of senior leadership spots. Progress has been made, but there is still work to be done. If the energy sector maintains its current pace, 50-50 gender parity won't be reached until 2058.
S&P Global's new report -- #ChangePays in Energy, released this week, indicates that gender diversity in the global energy sector has accelerated in the past 10 years. The number of female board members and C-level positions has nearly doubled since 2000 to reach 15% and 13%, respectively.
Geographically, there is significant variation in female representation among the most senior leaders in energy companies -- the C-suite, board members and senior managers.
In Asia-Pacific, Thailand ranks top with 23% of its leadership in the energy sector made up of women and is second to only New Zealand in the 30 countries with the largest sample size in the S&P Global BMI Energy (Sector) Index and S&P Global BMI Utilities (Sector) Index, based on personnel data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
In addition, Thailand ranks above most of the global developed markets, including Australia, the UK, the US and Japan. Looking across the region, others that significantly outperformed the regional average include the Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong. South Korea, Japan and Pakistan were listed lowest globally at around 3% of women board members and senior managers in the energy sector.
When broken down into subsectors, utilities beat the energy-sector average with 17% of female board members, slightly ahead of renewable electricity and other sectors including independent power producers, oil, gas and coal. While oil & gas slightly trailed, significant progress has been made, but from a lower base. The share of women on oil & gas boards reached 14% in 2019, double the level in 2009.
Compared with other industry sectors, the energy sector has closely tracked the broader swathe of industries when it comes to female board representation since 2013.
We also spoke to senior female industry executives and regulators to hear their opinions on gender parity in the energy sector, and how equality can be attained. One theme that consistently stood out is the lower share of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) specialities.
According to the United Nations, Thailand is among the world's most quickly ageing societies -- a trend that causes the student population to shrink. However, it has the potential to lead Stem education in the region. In 2017, Thailand became the first country in Asia-Pacific to pilot a policy toolkit under Unesco's global Stem and Advancement, a project aimed at analysing the impact of policies on gender disparities in Stem.
Our data shows that one reason there aren't more women in the C-suite in energy is the lack of women a step below to promote. These leaders offered practical proposals to get female managers into the organisational pipeline, which leads to leadership positions, including increased focus on sponsorship, mentorship programmes and networking groups in companies and expanding the promotion pool.
This report, #ChangePays in Energy, is part of the #ChangePays initiative launched this year at S&P Global, focusing on the economic benefits of more women in the workforce. Our research showed that greater women participation in the workplace could lead to stronger, healthier and more advanced economies. We forecast strengthening the number of women in the labour force would add US$5.87 trillion (178.6 trillion baht) to global market capitalisation. Global GDP could increase by 26% if women matched men in the workforce, which would benefit both advanced and developing nations.
The numbers in #ChangePays in Energy show that lack of gender parity is a worldwide phenomenon. Though there has been increased corporate attention on greater workplace inclusivity, there is still much work to be done to address diversity in terms of culture and definitions of gender roles.
For real change, the drive for gender equality needs to start at the top levels of organisations and be embodied throughout corporate culture in an authentic way. By demonstrating the benefits of greater workplace inclusivity to the business bottom line, we can make the case that change will have wide-ranging benefits both to businesses and the global economy. Change will contribute to the long-term success of the energy industry, and now it is up to companies to make it happen.
Sarah Cottle is Global Head of Market Insights for S&P Global Platts, a division of S&P Global and the leading global provider of information and benchmarks for the energy and commodity markets.