Women in the Petroleum Industry

Petroleum Engineering is a vast field with various opportunities for women to participate and contribute. The popular fields for women include geology and geoscience, reservoir engineering and even drilling and production. There are however burning issues related to the women in the oil and gas sector. Here i would like to quote this extract from this link

"This exploitation is of special concern to women because it hits them twice as hard. Women's labour is cheaper than men's labour because our rights are marginalized in a patriarchal/capitalist society. Oil companies use this to their advantage, to build their profit margin. For example, in Canada women earn an average of 71 cents for every dollar a man makes. The higher end of occupations, such as senior management positions show a larger wage gap with women making 68 cents for every dollar a man makes. The female senior managers in the oil industry make a sparse 57 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In Canada alone millions of people work in the oil industry, when all sectors of it are examined, this unequal renumeration adds up. Crown Oil is another example of the blatant mistreatment of women and minority workers shown all to often by large mulitnationals. Henry Rosenberg, the CEO and Chairman of Crown Oil is the focus of a gender and racial discrimination lawsuit brought about by eight workers and management staff. Upon receiving service awards, female employees were expected to give Rosenberg a kiss. Crown is full of racial discrimination too, racist flyers were being circulated before the lawsuit was issued. These are a few examples of the subordination women must face in the oil industry."

Needless to say, that there is no place for such gender discrimination in the modern day and age. These issues need to be resolved as soon as possible. Women should be encouraged to enter the field of petroleum engineering to pursue their career. However that will be only be possible if their interests and dignity is protected.