We have to push further and faster on representation of females

As an ambassador for POWERful Women, I’m passionate about the need for industry to embrace a fully diverse workforce and have a gender-balanced environment. I’m delighted to see an improvement in the numbers of women on both boards and executive teams. It’s encouraging to see progress, but it’s clear there’s much more to be done.

We must push further and faster – 79% of companies with no female executives in 2020 is unacceptable.

A fully diverse executive not only better represents the company demographic and establishes strong role models, it also creates better performing teams.

This is a pivotal time for the oil and gas sector as we continue to work towards ambitious decarbonisation targets during a global pandemic.

We must evolve quickly and create the strongest possible workforce to address the biggest challenge of a generation.

We also need to be careful as we emerge from this pandemic that women – often seen as the carers at home – are not unfairly disadvantaged with new “normal” ways of working.

Embedding a true culture of inclusivity into our organisations, alongside gender-balanced leadership teams will be critical to our long-term success.

We have a tremendous pool of talent and expertise which is currently underutilised. Why wouldn’t we want to maximise this experience and ensure we have a worldclass workforce that becomes the envy of other industries? This is not about the practicalities, such as flexible working and childcare, but about changing a bias which is still geared towards men.

It is outdated to believe women cannot lead, manage, negotiate and build a business with the same skill and success as our male colleagues.