AREEA cel­eb­rates female lead­ers in the resources sec­tor

As the world marked Inter­na­tional Women’s Day on March 8, the Aus­tralian Resources and Energy Employer Asso­ci­ation (AREEA) cel­eb­rated women who have made their mark on Aus­tralia’s resources and energy sec­tor.

As part of its national TRAILBLAZERS cam­paign, AREEA is show­cas­ing female pion­eers and con­tem­por­ary lead­ers con­trib­ut­ing at every level of Aus­tralia’s resources sec­tor — on site and off­shore, in engin­eer­ing and oper­a­tions, in cor­por­ate and com­mer­cial roles and in exec­ut­ive lead­er­ship and board­rooms.

Des­pite the mean­ing­ful gains made in recent years, AREEA notes there is much room for improve­ment in gender rep­res­ent­a­tion in key areas across the resources sec­tor.

In the Aus­tralian resources sec­tor women hold only 25% of senior man­age­ment roles, 32% of pro­fes­sional roles, 33% of appren­tice roles and only 10% of tech­nical and trades roles.

Com­par­at­ively, 26% of chief exec­ut­ive role across all indus­tries are held by women, yet only 8% of chief exec­ut­ive roles in the resources sec­tor are held by women, accord­ing to AREEA.

AREEA’s deputy chief exec­ut­ive Tara Dia­mond says these num­bers high­light both the pro­gress and the per­sist­ent gaps.

“That’s why it’s crit­ical that our industry act­ively recruits, retains and sup­ports women so the next gen­er­a­tion sees them­selves reflec­ted in the work­force, from site roles to the C-suite.”

Some female industry TRAILBLAZER names are instantly recog­nis­able, such as Han­cock Pro­spect­ing exec­ut­ive chair­man Gina Rine­hart and Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC) chief exec­ut­ive and man­aging dir­ector Amanda Lacaze.

AREEA notes sev­eral other remark­able women whose achieve­ments deserve recog­ni­tion:

• Former Wood­side exec­ut­ive vice pres­id­ent Eve How­ell, who in 2006 assumed respons­ib­il­ity for the North West Shelf project, Aus­tralia’s largest and most com­plex resource devel­op­ment

• Mar­ine Pilot ship­mas­ter Carol Dooley, who in 2004 became the first woman in

Aus­tralia to cap­tain an LNG car­rier and one of few female LNG cap­tains in the world at that time

“These Trail­blazers demon­strate that incred­ible and ground­break­ing role women have played and con­tinue to play across tech­nical excel­lence, lead­er­ship and innov­a­tion in the resources and energy industry,” Ms Dia­mond said.

“Inter­na­tional Women’s Day is a power­ful reminder that while pro­gress has been made, there is more to be done.

“These women paved the way for future gen­er­a­tions and helped build one of the most advanced, innov­at­ive and respons­ibly oper­ated indus­tries in the world.”