Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
STCIC:
Women in energy
Diversity
in the workplace and managing diversity have
become major issues in the global energy business
where companies do business on every continent.
One of the aspects of this diversification is the
increasing number of women working in energy companies
in positions that were once the domain of men.
Increasingly the once male dominated jobs in engineering
and the geosciences are being done by women. The
changing gender profile of the energy sector both
internationally and here in T&T has consequences
for human resource management and corporate social
responsibility.
The increasing number of women working in the
global energy business is driven by three main
issues:
1. The global energy business currently faces
a global skills shortage. This has meant that companies
have had to change their recruitment strategies
and turn to non-traditional pools of talent to
meet their demand for skills.
2. A number of countries, especially in Europe
and North America, have passed legislation that
seeks to eliminate gender discrimination. In addition
to the passage of legislation, international treaties,
such as the United Nations Treaty of the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, have
also placed obligations on countries to put mechanisms
in place to eliminate gender discrimination.
3. The corporate social responsibility movement
has heightened awareness among employers about
the need to promote gender equality as part of
their social responsibility.
The
case of T&T
Women
have always worked in the T&T energy
sector in areas such as the legal department and
in public relations but, in recent times, they
have also become visible in engineering and in
the geosciences. It is now a common sight to see
women working on offshore facilities and in the
petrochemical plants at Point Lisas.
In our sister Caricom country Jamaica, the Petroleum
Corporation of Jamaica is led by a woman, Ruth
Potopsingh.
By
and large, the energy sector in T&T, however,
continues to be male dominated. The ratio of men
to women employed in the “Petroleum Sector” (which
includes service companies) is much higher than
in other sectors of the economy: overall women
comprise 41 per cent of the employed labour force
while in the energy sector they comprise just 18
per cent of the employed labour force.
The increasing presence of women in the energy
sector in fields that were traditionally male dominated
is related to the changing gender profile of the
Faculty of Engineering at the University of the
West Indies. Over the years the percentage of female
enrollment at the Faculty of Engineering has seen
a steady increase.
In
2006, 39 per cent of graduates from the Faculty
of Engineering were female. Overall, almost two
thirds of all graduates from the UWI are female.
This trend, therefore, means that the gender profile
of the T&T workforce and the energy sector
will become more female in the coming years. A
similar trend can also be observed in the University
of T&T where females are enrolled in the various
engineering programmes.
Income disparities
However,
within the overall T&T economy women
tend to earn lower salaries for comparable jobs.
While there are no published statistics available
for the “Petroleum Sector,” there is
overall data for occupational categories. At senior
management job levels within T&T women earn
on average more than 50 per cent of the average
male salary in the same occupational category.
At
technical and clerical occupational categories
salary levels are closer, but are on average still
some 15 per cent lower than male salaries (based
on Central Statistical Office data for the year
2000). The disparity in salaries between men and
women is not limited to T&T. A study cited
in the Harvard Business Review of September 2007
revealed that American women earned about 44 per
cent less than men, averaged over the entire period
from 1983 to 2000. A 1999 article in the Monthly
Labour Review found that women earned 34 per cent
less than their male counterparts in the year 1998.
Another
finding contained in the September 2007 article
in the Harvard Business Review was the
presence of a “glass ceiling” in both
America and Europe with regard to women entering
the top tiers of management and leadership. The
article found that while women occupy more than
40 per cent of management positions in the US,
they constitute six per cent of the most highly
paid executives of Fortune 500 companies.
From the point of view of legislation, the Equal
Opportunity Act, 2000, has provisions for addressing
discrimination on the grounds of gender. This act
is yet to be implemented. The Maternity Protection
Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act
also make provisions for the female worker in the
workplace.
HR management issues
The increasing number of women within the labour
force introduces new people management and welfare
considerations for companies, including issues
such as:
- provisions for maternity and paternity leave,
- provision of both male and female facilities
(including on off-shore platforms),
- provision of child-care facilities, and
- Flexi-time and home-office policies.
Addressing issues such as equal pay for equal
jobs, provision of child-care facilities and preventing
sexual harassment requires the introduction of
specific people management policies within companies
in the sector, as well as out-reach and advocacy
activities within the wider national community.
On
February 27, the STCIC and the Geological Society
of T&T will host a workshop entitled “Women
in Energy.” This workshop will seek to identify
and address these issues and to develop a programme
of activities to address gender equity, for individual
companies and for the wider industry.
STCIC is
South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Petroleumworld not necessarily share
these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish
in Trinidad Guardian, Thursday 14th January, 2008
. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
02/17 /07
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