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The number of women in senior roles in the utilities sector has increased by 24% between 2020 and 2021, according to a report by Energy & Utility Skills.
The report shows how 21% of managers, directors and senior officials in the energy and utilities sector are now women, a positive improvement for inclusion and diversity in the industry.
However, the sector is still struggling to attract women to other job functions. For example, of all skilled tradespeople within the sector only 2% are female, with women occupying just 8% of plant and machine operative roles.
Conversely, women make up 70% of all secretarial roles in the industry.
Overall, women now make up 20% of the total workforce within the utilities sector.
Despite the record high proportion of workers in the industry being women, Louise Parry, director of people & organisational development at Energy & Utility Skills, said that “there is clearly some way to go” in improving diversity and inclusion within the utilities sector.
She added: “We are continuing to see steady progress in the diversity of the energy and utilities workforce, particularly in the representation of women at higher levels and in overall levels of ethnic diversity, although there is clearly still some way to go for the workforce to truly reflect the communities the sector’s workforce serves. […]
“Although progress is slow, the actions we are taking as a sector and as individual organisations are taking hold.”
On a national level, women make up 48% of the UK’s workforce.
Having launched in February 2019, Energy & Utility Skills’ Inclusion Commitment now has 55 signatories attempting to “drive change through its ongoing commitment to inclusive attraction, recruitment, and development of its workforce”.
Speaking to Utility Week earlier this year Parry raised concerns about the retention rates of women in the energy sector.
Meanwhile, this year’s gender pay gap saw a year-on-year increase across the utilities sector this year, with only electricity distribution network operators (DNOs) reporting a collective decline.
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