Global E&C Takes Part in International Women's Day 2021

The energy sector remains one of the least gender diverse sectors and closing this gender gap will be vital as women are key drivers of innovative and inclusive solutions.

Despite making up 48% of global labour force – women only account for 22% of the traditional energy sector.

On the 8th March, it’s International Womens Day. This year’s theme is #choosetochallenge and we’re looking forward to highlighting some of the fantastic women who are making a difference in our business.

A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day.

We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.

From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge.

Below are just two examples from Global E&C, of our women who are smashing stereotypes:

Global E&C Example 1: Rebecca Young

Think of a safety professional in the oil & gas industry and what image first comes to mind? Probably not that of a female safety director, or manager or even officer.
Women, like Global E&C’s HSE Advisor - Becky Young (pictured here), are in such roles & making a great impact but, compared to their male counterparts, the numbers still remain low.

IWD seeks to shine a light on the many achievements of women across the globe as well as to continue to highlight the areas of inequality that still exist.
Safety is not about stopping people from doing things, but about managing risks so that people can do things safely, and there are many women who are flourishing in safety and several who have made a huge impact. Take Dame Judith Hackett, former Chair of the Health & Safety Executive & Sheila Pantry OBE, former Head of Information Services at the HSE and winner of IOSH’s lifetime achievement award, as two examples.

To change this perception and the gender landscape of the sector, it is important that women who work within it gain the praise & promotion they deserve and build networks with other women in safety to promote the sector.

Global E&C Example 2: Leanne Park

For the first time ever, more than 1m women are working in engineering roles across the UK. However, there is still work to be done in increasing gender diversity in the engineering sector.

We want to make it clear that engineering is a fantastic career for women & shine a light on Global E&C’s Project Engineer - Leanne Park as an example of women making an impact in our business.

Challenging how things are done is a big part of our culture & our people's ability to find new & improved ways of working is key to our service delivery. As this year’s IWD theme is #choosetochallenge, it seems appropriate we highlight one of Leanne’s more recent efforts to do just that.

While working on a project for an offshore scope of work that required a complex weld, Leanne felt there had to be more efficient, safer alternative to the traditional method.
In trying to find the ideal solution, Leanne used our onshore fabrication facilities to run trial tests to ensure the smooth and safe execution of this innovative solution before tackling it offshore.

The mindset of our engineers, especially women, to feel empowered to challenge the status quo is vital for any industry that strives to deliver continual improvement.