Job stats reveal women participation in male-dominated areas on a steady decline

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Image credit: flickr user: Anglo American Plc

The Australian Women in Resources Alliance (AWRA), the resource industry’s national gender diversity initiative, has called for greater efforts to increase the number of women in male-dominated roles following a recent decline in women’s workforce participation.

Image credit: flickr user: Anglo American Plc
Image credit: flickr user: Anglo American Plc

According to the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA), recent employment data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown that the number of women working in the resource industry fell from 15.5% of the total workforce to 13.9% in the year to May 2014, with coal mining, metal ore extraction and quarrying activities all going backwards in terms of their gender balance over the past 12 months.

Tara Diamond, executive director of AMMA, the peak body facilitating AWRA, said areas of the industry traditionally dominated by men should be the immediate focus of diversity-savvy employers.

“There are 37,000 women working across Australia’s mining, oil and gas sectors – about 3,400 less than 12 months ago,” Ms Diamond said.

Adertisement

“This decline shows that as the resource industry’s skills demands evolve, driven by many projects moving from construction into production, employers must focus on attracting and retaining women in their workforces.”

The ABS stats showed that the oil and gas sector was the only area of the resource industry where the proportion of women employees increased over the past 12 months. Since May 2013, an additional 1,800 women joined the sector, boosting its female participation to 23.5%.

To ensure other areas of the resource industry can follow the positive trend of the oil and gas sector, Ms Diamond pointed to increased engagement in programs delivered by AWRA to assist employers in building a greater base of female talent.

“We recently launched the AWRA Recognise Program, which is the resource industry’s first official assessment of gender diversity capability within an organisation. This allows employers to ensure their policies, procedures and practices attract women workers, increase retention and develop future leaders,” she said.

“Many resource employers have demonstrated commitment to addressing gender imbalance, but greater momentum is now needed to lift overall participation levels. There are many successful women working in the industry today, highlighting not just the opportunities available, but also what women can achieve through a rewarding career in the resource industry.”