Titans of the oil and gas world like Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Plc, and BP Plc have successfully adapted to countless societal changes over the last century — war, nationalizations, even the climate movement. But a major hurdle remains: Big oil has yet to appoint its first-ever female chief executive — something BP could soon change.
This week, the 114-year old British oil company parted ways with its charismatic CEO Bernard Looney after multiple investigations found he failed to disclose several workplace relationships. What the board knew and when remains unclear. BP’s interim leader, Murray Auchincloss, is also in a relationship with a BP employee, though the company says it was fully disclosed when he became CFO.
In the US, women represent just 13% of the oil and gas C-suite, the lowest of any professional industry, according to McKinsey & Co. Worldwide, women occupy just 22% of jobs in oil and gas, making it the third-most gender imbalanced industry, according to a 2021 study by Boston Consulting Group and the World Petroleum Council. Despite the industry’s embrace of diversity and inclusion policies, that percentage was unchanged from four years earlier.
“I’m tired of hearing, where are the women?” Katie Mehnert, CEO of Ally Energy, a Houston-based human capital management company, said in an interview. “There’s not a lack of women. There’s a lack of visibility and opportunities for them to progress.” When women do become managers in non-technical roles, they often don’t make it to the C-suite. In a 2021 study, the International Energy Agency found a “particularly acute” disparity between women in lower and senior management, with just 5% occupying top posts in the industry.
“The reason for the decline may be that skills developed in these areas are more readily transferable to jobs outside the oil and gas industry,” said the BCG authors. If their existing employers don’t create an inclusive environment, they’ll leave, the report said. Last year, a separate Bloomberg investigation found that Exxon suffered substantial attrition during the pandemic due, in part, to a fear-laced culture that rewarded employees who looked and sounded like their managers. Exxon said this characterization is false.
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