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UPDATED 1 Sept: The EI library in London is temporarily closed to the public, as a precautionary measure in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The Knowledge Service will still be answering email queries via email , or via live chats during working hours (09:15-17:00 GMT). Our e-library is always open for members here: eLibrary , for full-text access to over 200 e-books and millions of articles. Thank you for your patience.
Disappointing progress on getting women onto energy boards
While there are some pockets of success, efforts to drive up the number of women at senior levels in the energy sector, have led to disappointingly slow progress, according to the Energy Leaders’ Coalition, which had made a public commitment in May last year to improve gender balance within their own companies and the sector as a whole.
Published this May, POWERful Women’s annual statistics on the composition of boards in the top 80 UK energy companies show that:
- women still occupy only 16% of board seats (a marginal increase from 13% in 2018);
- women still occupy only 6% of executive board seats (no improvement); and
- 42% of the companies have no women on their boards at all (a small improvement from 50% in 2018).
The leaders of eight major UK energy companies – between them representing 56,000 employees – are therefore urging a renewed effort. The Energy Leaders’ Coalition – EDF Energy, Good Energy, innogy, National Grid, Ørsted, ScottishPower, Shell and SSE – published a report on its progress in the past 12 months.
The report: Positive Steps to Gender Balance includes a series of case studies showing initiatives that have already been implemented – on tackling unconscious bias in recruitment, attracting and developing talent, flexible working and visible leadership and targets – and looks at next steps to overcome barriers.
Juliet Davenport, Chief Executive of Good Energy, said: ‘I am proud of the positive steps we have made on gender balance and the women who are already benefiting. But all of us on the Energy Leaders’ Coalition recognise that we have much more to do to move from unconscious bias to “conscious inclusion”.’
News Item details
Journal title: Energy World
Countries: UK -
Organisation: POWERful Women
Subjects: Employment, Diversity, Gender balance
