The gender divide in an industry with skill shortages

It was such a pleasure to attend River City Renewables’ Women in Energy event at the Emporium Hotel in South Brisbane last night. A big thank you Sarah Price, for the invitation to attend. As an INTP, proactively seeking out such events isn’t high on my to-do list. But I do love a good catch up with people I’ve had the pleasure to get to know whilst navigating this incredibly challenging industry we work within. Gratefully, some of my closest friends are such people.

The room was filled with a mix of energy professionals on both sides of the gender divide. Interestingly, the panel discussions got me thinking about such a divide and if I personally had been impacted or influenced by it in my 17 years in the industry, and more generally in my 44 years living within numerous minority groups.

As a farm kid from the Isis Shire, where EGP’s Childers Solar Farm now takes pride of place, I spent my entire childhood a minority. Us country kids, were greatly outnumbered at regional, state and national sporting events. As an avid public speaker and debater, we ran low on numbers in that arena also. The farming kids were of course a mix of girls and boys, but in the shadow of an idolised older brother, it wasn’t uncommon that I was one of few girls amongst the gang thrashing dirt bikes through cane fields and forestry’s.

At seventeen it was off to university, where as an engineering undergraduate the concept of minority became most apparent. In the late 1990’s girls were lucky to comprise 5% of the overall cohort. It was fact, but never an issue. Perhaps the aforementioned childhood was the perfect preparation to cope with such gender bias. Perhaps it was the fact my ‘country bumpkin’ parents never discussed or debated minority issues such as gender, race, or cultural differences. Often too exhausted to speak, we were instead more influenced by actions. The work hard, don’t complain, just get it done type actions. We were indifferent to gender, but not to one’s work ethic.

As a medical engineer it was into the surgical environment, where doctors tended to be male and nurses, female. That bothered me much less than the senior surgeons tending to be bullies. There’s nothing more soul destroying than watching an incredibly intelligent professional ten years into their career being treated like an incompetent child. This age-old custom didn’t discriminate based on gender.

Pivoting with a Masters of Applied Finance, I ended up in London on a proprietary trading desk, trading German bond futures of all things. A long way from the red dirt of a Childers small crops farm. As one of two women in the entire organisation, it was far less about gender, and much more about who generated the most income for our three alpha male trading directors. As the traders churned week in week out based on performance (or lack thereof), one thing remained consistent, females were the minority. In my three years in London, we never reached a total of three on the desk at any one time.

Longing for the Australian way of life and the proximity of family it was home to Brisbane to seek out a trading desk. These were few and far between in 2005, so with no idea what I was getting myself into, I accepted a position in Ergon Energy. Within months our retail was flagged for sale, and I was working directly with large commercial and industrial users as their conduit into the wholesale trading team. No surprises that again, I found myself in an industry and a team where we were greatly outnumbered by our male colleagues. Fortunately, we were led by a fearless female who had clearly diversified her senior executive. The foundations of change were starting to be laid.

In the 17 years since joining this incredible industry I’ve had the pleasure of working with many industry and client based energy professionals. I can honestly say I have never really noticed, and definitely have not been impacted, by a gender divide. I have never felt like a minority. Perhaps as a proud member of the LGBT community, my tolerance for being impacted as a minority is vastly heightened by having navigated personal relationships, a marriage, and building a family in a minority that sadly is also too often marginalised.

With every talented male counterpart that I have had the pleasure to work with in the energy industry, I can name a female that is equally as impressive. I’m often in awe of some of the women that lead or have senior roles in some of our industries most prominent organisations. From the market operator, to our regulatory bodies, our retailers, generators, network and metering service providers, and of course our fellow specialist advisory services organisations. I have never felt like a minority in this industry. I have never felt like a man can outperform my role within it. Over the 15 years running the Edge businesses I have hired many men and women and am proud to say that not one hiring decision was influenced by gender. We’ve had times when men are higher in numbers, a time when we were almost all women, and like now, when we are perfectly balanced.

Last night was interesting in that, whilst I celebrated and supported the topic and the panel and their intention to bring a focus on women in energy, there’s no denying that part of me, that ‘country bumpkin’ core, wished we’d focus less on gender and more about just getting things done. Most notably at present, moving our industry through this grey area where our transition fuels are driving prices beyond reason and our new energy storage technology solutions remain commercially and / or physically inadequate to drive prices and the energy mix to where they both should be.

I’m going to finish by highlighting another critical message that came through loud and clear last night. A message that as a Managing Director of a specialist service provider in this industry I am acutely aware of. We have a massive skills and expertise shortage in this industry. A shortage that has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with poor education and training, and tunnel vision in task allocation amongst larger industry organisations. Figuratively speaking our industry requires A to Z in several languages, and all too often experienced staff arrive with proficiency in one language alone. It’s not good enough.

As desperately as we need improved physical solutions to facilitate our energy transition, we need improved resourcing. At Edge2020, supported by a very solid senior energy management team, we recently changed our hiring philosophy away from hiring more senior personnel to targeting talented graduates we can educate and train. With a young generation passionate about renewables and a sustainable future, there is no better time for this industry to attract high calibre graduates who, first and foremost, are focussed on working in an industry and with an organisation that is committed to this same future. We look forward to imparting our knowledge with this generation. And perhaps Sarah is on to something. Maybe Edge2020 should open this up to others in the industry who can utilise our experience and training plans to upskill for their respective organisations. Watch this space...