The energy industry has already, and will continue to play a huge role in tackling climate change – the biggest challenge of our generation. Alongside this, our industry is also facing a huge skills gap. It’s a gap that we need to close to meet the UK’s Net Zero targets. However, we’re making choices and decisions that are leaving some people behind.
As a traditionally male-dominated sector, many women in the energy industry still face physical barriers in the workplace. Data from Engineering UK shows that, as of 2022, women make up 16.5% of all engineers in the UK. This is a six percent point increase since 2010.
Men and women have different body shapes and different welfare needs. Recognising this and implementing appropriate changes will not only improve the psychological safety of women in the workplace, but it can also reduce the risk of accidents and improve the overall health and wellbeing of the workforce.
Yet despite ongoing work to improve diversity, there are still simple, obvious changes companies could make to remove the physical barriers to inclusivity. This International Women’s Day, Energy UK has been working with industry to highlight some of these barriers and showcase how to break them.
One size doesn’t fit all
Ill-fitting PPE is a challenge many women face in operational roles, often being given men’s designs, just smaller, which doesn’t take account of the fact that men and women have different body shapes. This is not just inconvenient, it poses potential risks. The issue goes wider than just PPE; differences in chests, hips and thighs can affect the way that safety harnesses fit – clearly posing not only a safety risk, but also longer-term implications of carrying weight wrongly.
Kathrine Evans, founder of Bold as Brass, and Katy Robinson, Senior Project Manager of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, have been raising awareness around this issue and campaigning for change. Now, Katy has proposed a private members’ bill which aims to mandate the provision of inclusive PPE across all service areas and sectors. Meanwhile, Katherine works to continuously raise awareness of the availability of inclusive PPE through the PPE that Fits website.
Incorrectly fitting PPE can also impact an individuals’ self-esteem and confidence. This was noted by Energy UK member National Grid, by its ‘Women in National Grid’, a female-lead employee network that has campaigned to introduce a new range of PPE. This included an increased range of PPE sizes, made to measure items and high-vis maternity PPE for pregnant people.
But this isn’t just about women. It’s about inclusion for all and the “Personal” part of Personal Protective Equipment. Further work is being done, for example by Laurienne Buhinja, who is leading a Hair and Safety campaign around ensuring that companies support employees that might have additional needs in wearing hard hats, for example if they have afro hair or sport religious headwear.
Toilet troubles
With the Government setting a target to increase our offshore wind capacity by four times in the next six years, we’re going to need a lot of technicians that can maintain the turbines offshore.
These kinds of jobs should be attractive to both men and women. They’re contributing to our clean energy targets, they’re long-term, well paid and with towers up to 90m above sea level, it is an exciting place to work, with some of the best views around!
But many turbines still don’t have toilets on them. While men have come up with imaginative solutions for when nature calls (will leave how to your imagination), women have slightly different needs. It’s not as easy to “go off the side” or “pee into a bottle” (in case your imagination didn’t get it) and changing a tampon with respect, requires privacy. To get to a toilet may mean descending the tower, and transferring onto a boat, which always carries additional risk, and wastes productive time.
Faye McFarlane works at Specialist Marine Consultants, a company which has developed toilet units that fit in the tower of an offshore wind turbine. Faye’s team has three focus areas; diversity, safety and productivity. Without suitable workspaces for women, all three of these are often compromised. Just by having a toilet in a turbine means an average of six fewer ladder climbs and transfers to crew transfer or service operation vessels, which, while improving safety can increase productivity by an average of about 18%. They’re now working closely with Energy UK member Orsted to install the toilets on their turbines.
Investing in women
Implications of these barriers are not just personal inconveniences. They are indicative of systemic issues that women face in the workplace, presenting women with unique challenges that can hinder their ability to do their jobs and often add additional safety risks.
To meet our future workforce needs we must open our industry to everyone, by improving diversity to ensure people from all walks of life feel they can join, and thrive, in the sector. This means focusing on inclusion and acting where simple barriers exist. Women shouldn’t be facing these basic blockers when there are simple fixes.
The industry does have measures in place to increase diversity; recent sector deals have included diversity commitments and there are initiatives spanning the sector, including POWERful Women, Women’s Utilities Network and Bold as Brass as mentioned above.
Energy UK is also a founding member of TIDE (Tackling Inclusion and Diversity in Energy) which aims to make it as easy as possible for energy companies across the sector to improve equity, diversity and inclusion of all kinds.
As part of this, we are committed to supporting the industry in overcoming deep-rooted stereotypes, dismantling barriers in education, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture. These are critical steps toward achieving gender equality, but also in ensuring inclusion for everyone.