Diversity Extends Opportunity In Oil And Gas

Right now, the industry needs accomplished, qualified people to take advantage of high product prices and innovative technologies coming on stream. More and more, women and international citizens will bring outside-the-box perspectives to help fill that need in management, geoscience and engineering.

White males dominated the industry for much of its history, and a glance around major executive offices, conferences and technical events shows that dominance still exists, but the industry is changing.

Today, women have emerged from positions such as secretaries, file clerks, drafting specialists and human resources staffers, to function as professionals, carrying out important exploration and production (E&P) jobs in the field and boardroom.

Women can be found working on most oil and gas projects around the world and in executive ranks of producing companies and service-providers. They’ve proven they’re qualified, and they’re looking for more challenging positions.

While some women believe males still dominate the oil and gas industry and look to other fields where the mix is more even, others acknowledge that dominance, continue to earn degrees in geoscience and/or engineering and welcome the challenge.

Women tackle industry challenges

Most women in the petroleum industry looked past the obstacles and pursued their goals to search around the world for oil and gas, and many found the opportunities they sought.

Because of inequities of the past and possibly more opportunities in the present, women in the petroleum industry today seem to have more of a drive to succeed. Regardless of age or when they entered the industry, many women respect the pioneering of women who created today’s working environment. As a result, they express a passion for learning and achieving goals.

Addressing challenges

In a recent address aimed at encouraging women to enter the industry and prolong the continued success of women already employed there, Nancy Sullivan, vice president, aromatics & phenol for Shell Chemicals, listed specific steps and beneficial guidelines that can help women not only in the oil and gas industry, but in any other industry or company.

Sullivan said there are numerous reasons more women do not enter the oil and gas industry and still more reasons more females are not seen in management positions. It’s not necessarily the fault of schools and society, she said, but much career success lies with the woman herself.

“If a woman is not promoted within her work environment, it could be because her employer hired some-one more qualified or possibly had an under-lining preference of who they wanted for the job,” she said. “When there’s a predominance of white males, they tend to refer people they know. And most of the people they know in their field are men.”

Therefore, she said, it is up to the woman to do everything in her power to promote herself in the industry.

Though many women are still being labeled as overly sensitive or non-confrontational, women need to look past those stereotypes and believe in themselves as strong confident leaders, she said.

“If this is not displayed to their co-workers, employers and clients, women will never be viewed as management material. Every person’s culture is different; every one was raised in different home environments, and that has a lot to do with the person they will be in life as well as their future careers,” she said.

Rise above weaknesses

In her address, “Developing High Performance Teams as a Woman Leader,” Sullivan said many women have been encouraged to not make waves, avoid conflict, be nice, keep everyone happy and to defer to others.

“One thing that needs to be understood in the work world is that people can not please everyone; that is not possible,” she said.
Sullivan said many women feel uncomfortable standing out from a group.

“From my experience, I’ve seen many women who want to treat people equally and have had difficulty taking a strong leadership role. Sometimes women focus on doing the work of the team members rather than delegating and providing direction to others,” she said.

To make it in the petroleum industry, women need to shed their feminine exterior and take on leadership qualities to advance in management positions, she said, adding that men typically receive different messages such as “win at all costs,” or “be a leader, not a follower,” or “don’t show your emotions.” This explains why men present themselves more forcefully in going after a job, she said.

Sullivan feels a woman leader needs three qualities to succeed in the business world:
• be true to yourself and trust you have what it takes to be a strong leader;
• tap into your life experiences; and
• enjoy the ride along the way; it’s important to enjoy the journey.

How women can advance

To rise in the industry, Sullivan said, women must become what they are not. If more women are seen in management positions, other women will see the possibilities that are present in the industry.

Women are well suited in today’s business environment to be strong leaders and develop high-performance teams, she continued. Women possess a number of qualities ideal for management positions: they are relationship-oriented, broad thinking, excellent multitaskers, and they value diversity and recognition as important. She offered advice designed to take advantage of those qualities:
Cultivate relationships—“Women tend to place a high value on relationships. Women understand that strong relationships with co-workers, employees, employers, clients, etc. are essential to the industry.”

See the big picture—“From my experience, women tend to be skilled at seeing issues in a broad context with a long-term view. As the complexity of business grows with short-term pressures, this ability will be extremely important in sustaining a solid business. A strong leader is able to identify both the short-term and long-term impact of particular action and achieve a proper balance to keep the business health over time.”

Multitask—“Women have been known to be good at juggling a hectic schedule. In general, women are very good at handling different tasks at one time.”

Value diversity—“It’s only been recently that so many women have entered the workforce, particularity in roles traditionally held by men. Women value diversity in the workplace for the fact that they have already experienced the feeling of being an outsider in a new environment. Women acknowledge that diversity is the key to a successful work environment.”

Recognize a job well done—“I’ve found that women are very good at recognizing the contribution of others. Every employee hopes that their work is recognizes in the workplace. Women express a sensitive nature toward others. Females seem to be more inclined to issue a job well done and pay credit where credit is due.”

From her past experiences, Sullivan has noticed a number of challenges in relation to women in the industry. In her presentation she displayed these viewpoints.

Be a leader vs. a team member—“Some women struggle with this in an effort to promote equality among everyone. It’s important for women to become comfortable in a leadership role.”

Make tough decisions, especially about people –

“While it’s important to treat people well and recognize contributions, it’s also critical to have the right team. If a person is not a good fit for the team, it’s important to make a change and deal with the issue directly.”

Seek highly visible jobs with line management (profit and loss) responsibility—“The Catalyst group, an organization studying women’s issues in breaking the glass ceiling, identified this as the No. 1 reason women do not move on to senior executive positions. If you aspire to a senior executive position, I would encourage you to seek out a line management job as early in your career as possible. Don’t be shy – proactively pursue these opportunities.”

Deal with conflict/confrontation—“I’ve observed that many women, in an effort to keep harmony, avoid direct conflict or confrontation. For many of us, we’ve received messages that our role as women is to try to please and keep everyone happy. Well, a strong leader will not please everyone. The ability to deal with conflict directly in a constructive manner, where people feel they have been treated respectfully, is absolutely critical to lead a high-performing team.”

Delegate (work/life balance) —“Some women have trouble delegating and letting others do the work. A strong leader of high-performing teams can delegate and trust team members to perform well. And, of course, she will take immediate action with any performance problems. In this fast-paced world, it’s also essential to delegate for maintaining a reasonable work/life balance.”

Be resilient—“I’ve found that many women take feedback very personally, allowing it to impact self-esteem. It’s important to realize that we all have development opportunities and feedback will allow us to grow as a leader. Strong leaders need to be resilient and open to feedback.”

Female organizational support groups

Specific organizations have been created to encourage women to gravitate to technical positions in the industry. Numerous organizations hold benefits to raise money for scholarships or publish newsletters to inform women about careers in the oil and gas industry.

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is one such organization. A non-profit educational and service organization, it is made up of of graduate engineers and both men and women with the equivalent in engineering experience. The SWE strives to motivate women to reach their full potential in careers as engineers and leaders. The organization also displays the image of the engineering profession as having a positive affect on the quality of life. It also promotes the value of diversity.
Each June, SWE holds a Convention and Student Conference, during which the college hosts four, 1-week camps. The SWE is a sponsoring society of National Engineers Week and awards more than $100,000 annually in scholarships. The society also publishes a magazine every other month.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers formed a women’s network along with a young professionals network and a petroleum engineering educators network. The women’s network encourages networking among women members to deal with gender-related career issues. It also offers a Web site where women can seek and find advice on individual issues.

Numerous colleges and universities are beginning to make it their top priority to ensure the constant growth of females in the oil and gas industry. The University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering provides two programs that address the shortage of women engineers: GRADE (Girls Reaching and Demonstrating Excellence) and WELCOME (Women in Engineering Learning Community for Maximizing Excellence).

GRADE is designed for female high school students and WELCOME is focused toward women who are in the university’s engineering program.

GRADE notes that females currently make up only 20% of engineering undergraduates; and that women hold less than a quarter of jobs in all technical fields. According to the university, the most recent statistics show that China is producing more than five times as many first degrees in engineering than the United States.

Women in Engineering groups

The following are examples of support groups for women at a number of U.S. universities:

• Colorado School of Mines
• Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics
• University of Maryland
• Women in Engineering (WIE)
• University of Michigan – College of Engineering
• Women in Science and Engineering Program
• WIE Office
• Georgia Tech – College of Engineering
• Women in Engineering

Minorities in the oil and gas industry

While there is a lack of women in the industry, minorities are viewed in somewhat the same perspective, and companies welcome them.

Minority employees bring in a number of advantages. People from different countries and backgrounds allow others to learn and benefit from the cultural diversity. For example, people with backgrounds different from the norm may approach challenges in ways overlooked by traditional employees.

“It’s actually very important to us to hire people from a variety of backgrounds,” said Frank McKay, university relations manger, North America, for Schlumberger. “The reason is that we don’t want to have everybody out of the same mold. If you want your management organization in a company to have different backgrounds and have a number of different perspectives on a particular problem, then you’ve got to push that back to your hiring. If you hire people all from the same background, you’re going to end up with a lot of people with just about the same perspective on any problem.”

With the industry becoming more diverse in terms of work, traveling, clients and international technology, hiring more minorities has become a necessity. A lot of talented prospects are found in other countries, and it is a top priority to make sure companies are staffed accordingly.

A company that hires minorities finds potential new job candidates see the diverse background of races and cultures inside the company, and that makes them feel less like outsiders. What’s more, after seeing cultural and racial diversity among managers in the work environment, minority job candidates recognize that they, too, will be afforded future advancement higher-level positions.
Dynamic companies look for job candidates who will create new technology and find better solutions. They need that diversification to stay on top of the industry. Minority candidates often combine knowledge and the perspective of different cultures and way of thinking.

Promoting equal opportunities

While U.S. immigration laws can be draconian compared with the rest of the world, particularly the paperwork involved in obtaining work visas, petroleum-related companies are taking steps necessary to enable them to bring foreign nationals to U.S. offices for training and to gain experience.

Increasingly, companies work with government bureaus and other nations to obtain visas and promote visits and work accommodations. Many companies also have erased the glass ceiling in terms of salaries and other compensation paid to foreign nationals.

“One of the things I’m the most proud of about Schlumberger is the equality among people who work for the company,” McKay said. “In the past, for example, many companies would hire an Indonesian engineer and he would get an Indonesian salary in Indonesian currency. If they moved him overseas, he’d be paid about the same salary, with a few little extra benefits. However, Schlumberger works the opposite way. Anybody who’s working outside their own country gets treated exactly the same. An Indonesian at home might make $500 a month in U.S. terms. An American at home might make $5,000 a month in U.S. terms. But both of them would make exactly the same if they were to be posted to Australia. We treat the Indonesian engineer exactly the same as the American engineer.”

Jeff Bush, president of Denver-based CSI Recruiting, listed another reason for the shortage of minorities in the U.S. industry, noting that many foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. universities with geoscience and engineering degrees do not stay in the U.S. to launch their careers.

“In my experience, by and large, the international students in petroleum-related programs at U.S. colleges and universities return to their home country following graduation,” he said. “There is a need for these technical skills back home, and they apply their education and internship experience to oil companies focused on their native region.”

Minority student organizations

U.S. universities are beginning to address the problems encountered by many foreign students in U.S. geoscience and engineering schools. A number of engineering schools, for example, have created organizations to help such students assimilate, as well as expose them to U.S. employment opportunities. Most of these programs offer scholarships, publish newsletters and hold meetings that allow members to interact. The idea behind it is that it’s always beneficial for overseas students to be joined with people who share the same opinions and problems. Listed below are a few of the minority engineering organizations that are among universities.

The Ohio State University – College of Engineering (Minority Engineering)
• Lambda Psi Engineering Honorary
• National Society of Black Engineers
• Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
• American Indian Science and Engineering Society
University of Florida – College of Journalism and Communications
• Association of Asian Communicators
• Association of Black Communicators
• Hispanic Communicators Association
Penn State – Smeal College of Business
• Multi-Cultural Business Society
• National Association of Black Accountants
• National Hispanic Business Association
University of Illinois at Urbaba-Champaign – College of Engineering
• Morrill Engineering Program

Lack of financial support

A continuing shortage of women and minorities in university geoscience/engineering programs is due in part to a lack of the funds necessary to finance their education. Experts say college and universities need to raise money for scholarships and grants so that potential students from those categories can afford the high tuition associated with gaining first- and second-tier degrees in technical disciplines. It has also been pointed out that minorities are not being paid enough for their education and years of experience, and women still feel they are not being paid as much as men. Some companies are trying to change that and offer better benefits and funding for women and minorities.

In the end, if a young person wants to pursue a career in the disciplines associated with the upstream petroleum industry, he or she usually finds a way to make it possible, regardless of gender, race, religion or cultural background.