The contributions of women聽as the largest consumers in the聽liquefied petroleum gas industry,聽have聽largely gone unrecognized and are聽reflected in their absence on the boards of companies,聽according to Energia, an NGO on Thursday.
Energia, a non-governmental organization focusing on women鈥檚 issues in the energy industry, recorded that most LPG consumers are women while they are in the majority in聽making聽and managing聽the purchasing decision of liquefied petroleum gas.
Taking these聽statistics into account, the World LPG Association (WLPGA) decided to focus more on women in the industry聽and will establish聽the聽Women in LPG Global Network聽(WINLPG). Its inaugural meeting will be held at the聽World LPG Forum in Singapore on Sept.聽29.聽
Alison Abbott, the WLPGA marketing and communications director and the future manager of WINLPG, told Anadolu Agency that聽the global LPG industry should avail of the聽opportunity聽to聽take medium and long-term action to聽attract,聽retain聽and聽develop聽women in the industry.
"As the authoritative global voice for LPG, the WLPGA is uniquely positioned to develop and implement these actions,"聽Abbott said.
However, Abbott pointed out within the industry itself there are few women, not only at executive level, but at all levels. This phenomenon is shared in many sectors of the energy industry and in other areas of business also.
"Having more women in management positions improves a company鈥檚 financial performance and can boost company returns,"聽Abbott said.
She added聽that聽evidence shows that companies with women on its board outperform their rivals by 42 percent in higher returns on sales. She explained that according to a U.K. government study entitled聽鈥榃omen on Boards,鈥櫬爃igher performance聽is achieved聽by enhancing company decision making through the use of all available perspectives, ideas and skills reflecting that gender diversity of customers and employees is beneficial to the industry.
Abbott said that the LPG industry also suffers from a negative perception of being old fashioned and uninteresting and a recent graduate survey, PWC 2011 survey of more than 4,000 graduates from over 75 countries, showed that the oil and gas industry as a whole is one of the most unpopular career paths chosen by women.
WINLPG aims to support and help empower women in the worldwide LPG industry through leadership, coaching, mentoring and promoting role models. Through this support, the group hopes to enable a change in organizational attitude to become more inclusive and authentic for all genders at all operational levels. At its core, the network believes聽that women have a unique set of qualifications and abilities that can contribute to any business.
"The issue is that gender balance is not optimized in the LPG industry and WLPGA is in a unique position to start to make a change, this change is to be driven by a network that will recommend actions and activities as part of the WLPGA strategic planning process,"聽Abbott said.
There are also other network groups similar to聽WINLPG such as聽Global Women in Nuclear Association, Women in Mining and Women in Solar.
WINLPG will be chaired by Nikki Brown, the managing director of Cavagna U.K. and will be coordinated from WLPGA by Alison Abbott. 聽聽
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
murat.temizer@aa.com.tr