Why diversity matters?

It is obvious that we all deserve to work in an environment that’s free from discrimination and harassment, and we, at BHGE are trying to make sure we create safe workplace for everyone regardless of their faith, gender and culture.

But today, I would like to focus on gender diversity in our very male dominant industry. It is not just our company, but the Oil & Gas industry itself has been traditionally the business where men will take up on more centric positions. Women comprise only about one-fifth of the oil and gas industry's ranks, far lower than many other major sectors*

At BHGE we are making sure not only to disrupt the idea of traditional roles for women in our industry, but to overcome cultural challenges as well.

Women in our region, and generally from this industry have been usually assigned to all different roles but technical and engineering. And in BHGE we want to change it.

As leaders, our aim is to attract and retain more women with right skill sets and expertise & to encourage females at early stage to pursue educations in STEM. I have a firm belief that the industry itself and we as its leaders can and must do much more to improve our numbers when it comes to gender diversity.

We are partnering with our local stakeholders and customers at different markets to try to close different gender gaps at the workplace, and I am proud to say that we are on the right path.

For example in KSA, around 40 % of all females working with BHGE are engineers, and around 30% of participants of our leadership programs at this market are females.

We are kicking off a storytelling campaign #BHGEmpowers to introduce number of strong and confident BHGE female colleagues from our region that will change your perception of #Womeninstem. Throughout the year, we will be sharing stories of those that work side by side with their male colleagues and prove every day that they are making a history in our region.

Here is our first story: meet Maryam Al Ohaly, who is a Saudi chemical engineer and scientist at our Dhahran Technology Center in KSA.

*Data: Boston Consulting Group, World Petroleum Council;