Qatar’s energy sector has made strides improving gender diversity in recent years, but still faces a number of challenges, a report has found.
The country will face a significant challenge ensuring that the rising numbers of females entering the domestic oil and gas industry will be retained in the long term, an industry survey carried out by Gulf Intelligence found.
The survey of around 120 female energy industry leaders attending the Gulf Intelligence Women in Energy Summit held in association with the Qatar Businesswomen Association, found that 43% of respondents thought gender diversity in Qatar’s energy sector had made limited progress over the past five years.
In addition, 37% expressed the view that it had improved significantly. 15% of those surveyed thought progress on gender diversity had been largely unchanged, while 2% each said it had been non-existent or digressed.
However, despite encouraging developments on the diversity front, there are concerns over the industry’s ability to retain the rising numbers of women entering Qatar’s oil and gas sector, with 86% of those surveyed expressing the view that this would be the greatest challenge facing the industry in the long-term.
Only 14% of respondents thought this won’t be the main challenge for Qatar’s oil and gas industry.
