A Women in Industry breakfast will be hosted by a keynote speaker and there will be sessions on gender as part of both the Strategic programme and Technical programme of the main conference. Gender will also form one of four keys strands in the ‘social responsibility’ stand in the exhibition area.
The organisers of the Congress see promoting the role of women as vital to improving the productivity of the sector, following a number of studies on the topic.
The Diversity Wins report by McKinsey shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability compared to those in the bottom quartile.
The Gender 3000 Report by Credit Suisse found that companies with at least one woman on the board had an average higher return on equity of 2 percentage points compared to companies with no female board members.
And the S&P Global report When Women Lead, Firms Win found that companies with female CEOs and CFOs produce superior stock price performance compared to the market average. In the 24 months post-appointment, firms with female CEOs saw a 20% increase in stock price momentum and those with female CFOs saw a 6% increase in profitability.
“Research consistently illustrates that companies with more women in leadership roles, boards, and the overall workforce tend to outperform their peers in profitability, stock market performance, innovation, and risk management,” said Sarah Beattie, Director of Communications for WPC Energy.
Women10x platform
WPC Energy—along with the International Strategic Accelerator for Women (iSAW) and Leadership Excellence Awards and Symposium (LEWAS)—launched the Women10x platform a year ago. Women10x is a digital community and ecosystem that allows key stakeholders from energy companies, associations and women’s organisations to share knowledge, ideas, resources and best practices in order to address the under-representation of women in the workplace.
The founders encourage participation from men and women alike, acknowledging that meaningful change requires everyone's involvement.
“Irrespective of gender, what we want is change agents to join the platform,” said Martin Elliot, Chief Strategy Officer for iSAW.
The founders hope to reach a tipping point of around 100 users across 10 companies ahead of the Riyadh Congress.
“At that point people will start to realise they are going to be missing out if they are not a part of this,” said Elliot.
The Women10x leadership recognises that diversity is becoming an increasingly challenging issue for employers to navigate.
A recent study by Covo Intelligence for iSAW analysed nearly 7.3m social media posts and found that for every positive mention of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), there were 47 negative mentions—highlighting the often toxic nature of online conversations around the topic.
Despite this, a survey of 1,000 people found that 70% of respondents agreed that companies should publicly support efforts to create fairer and more inclusive workplaces.
“Given the nature of the conversation, there are bound to be those in leadership positions who are wary of making this a visible topic,” said Elliot. “Our message is that ultimately this isn’t just about social responsibility—it’s simply good business sense.”
WPC Energy, iSAW, and LEWAS are exploring alternative terminology to reframe the polarised debate and emphasise the business advantages of diversity and inclusion.
“Having been in senior positions in the industry for a number of years, I know it makes a difference if I've got diverse teams, and particularly mixed-gender teams,” said Elliot.
For more information on Women10x and how you can become involved, please visit www.women10x.org
Comments