Women in engineering are shaping some of the most consequential projects in the world – from deepwater oil and gas installations to offshore wind farms, solar developments, and major energy infrastructure. Across oil and gas, offshore and maritime, renewable energy, and energy infrastructure construction, women are contributing as engineers, project managers, technical specialists, and industry leaders.
The picture is one of genuine progress alongside persistent gaps. Understanding both where the opportunities are strongest and what still needs to change is important for women considering a career in energy engineering, for employers looking to build more balanced and effective teams, and for the industry as a whole as it faces some of its most significant talent challenges to date.
This guide covers the current state of representation, the career opportunities available across global energy sectors, the challenges that remain, and the practical steps that engineers, employers, and the industry can take.
Where We Are Now: Women in the Global Energy Workforce
The data provides an honest picture of the current state. According to the International Energy Agency’s 2025 World Energy Employment report, women account for approximately 20% of the global energy workforce – one in five jobs, compared to roughly 40% across the broader global economy. That gap has remained largely static in recent years, in part because the fastest-growing roles in energy – welders, electricians, line workers, and construction trades – are also the roles with the lowest female representation.
Renewables perform better than the rest of the sector. A 2025 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found that women hold 32% of full-time jobs in renewables globally – higher than in fossil fuel industries, but unchanged since IRENA’s first gender analysis in 2019. Within renewables, representation varies: solar leads at around 40%, while wind lags at approximately 21%. In oil and gas, the figure drops to around 22%, with pipeline transportation among the least represented areas in the energy value chain.
The gap is sharpest at senior levels. Women hold only 19% of senior leadership positions across the renewables sector, and in oil and gas the figure remains below 1% of executive roles. Representation is stronger in scientific research and administration, and weaker in operational and field engineering roles.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the IET’s Women in Engineering programmes continue to document and address these gaps, advocating for structural changes in both education and industry hiring practice.
These statistics matter not just as a question of equity. The global energy sector faces a significant and growing talent shortage, and leaving half the potential workforce underrepresented is a practical problem as much as a moral one. The business case is clear: diverse teams consistently produce better technical decisions, stronger safety cultures, and more resilient project outcomes.
Career Opportunities for Women in Global Energy Engineering
The energy sector offers an exceptionally broad range of engineering disciplines, and the demand for skilled professionals is active across all of them. Here is how the opportunity landscape looks across the key sectors:
Oil and gas engineering
The oil and gas sector offers technically demanding, high-responsibility roles across the full project lifecycle. Women are working as petroleum engineers, drilling engineers, process engineers, well integrity specialists, reservoir engineers, and HSE professionals on projects spanning the North Sea, West Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. The technical rigor and global mobility these roles demand make them genuinely rewarding for engineers who thrive in complex environments.
Key roles in oil and gas for women engineers:
- Petroleum and reservoir engineers
- Drilling engineers and wellsite supervisors
- Process and chemical engineers
- Subsea and pipeline engineers
- HSE and process safety specialists
- Project engineers and project managers
Offshore and maritime engineering
The offshore and maritime sector has historically been one of the most male-dominated environments in energy, but it is changing. Women are increasingly working as marine engineers, offshore project engineers, structural engineers, dynamic positioning officers, survey professionals, and ROV operators on vessels and platforms around the world. The rotational nature of offshore work – typically two weeks on, two weeks off or similar – can offer a degree of schedule flexibility that appeals to many professionals.
Key offshore and maritime roles:
- Marine and mechanical engineers
- Offshore installation and project engineers
- Structural and naval architects
- Survey and geotechnical engineers
- Dynamic positioning officers
- ROV pilots and supervisors
Renewable energy engineering
Renewable energy is both the fastest-growing part of the global energy sector and, relative to oil and gas, one of the more accessible entry points for women engineers. The sector’s emphasis on long-term impact, technical innovation, and sustainability tends to attract a broader range of graduates. Offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, battery storage, hydrogen, and grid infrastructure are all generating strong hiring demand for engineers across electrical, civil, mechanical, and environmental disciplines.
Key roles in renewables for women engineers:
- Offshore and onshore wind engineers
- Solar PV and electrical engineers
- Grid integration and power systems engineers
- Energy storage and hydrogen specialists
- Environmental and permitting engineers
- Commissioning and O&M engineers
Energy infrastructure construction
The construction of energy infrastructure – power plants, substations, transmission lines, LNG facilities, and renewable energy developments – creates strong demand for civil, structural, electrical, and project management professionals. The construction and infrastructure sector is seeing growing representation of women in project management and technical leadership roles, particularly on large-scale project where multidisciplinary coordination is essential.
Key roles in energy construction:
- Construction and site engineers
- Structural and civil engineers
- Electrical and commissioning engineers
- Construction project managers
- Planning and scheduling engineers
- Quality and HSE managers
Challenges Still Facing Women in Energy Engineering
Progress has been real, but honest acknowledgement of the barriers that remain is more useful than optimism that overstates how far the industry has come. The following challenges are well documented and consistently reported by women working in energy engineering:
- Persistent gender bias in hiring and promotion: Engineering has a long male-dominated history, and the effects of that history persist in unconscious bias during recruitment, in performance evaluation, and in decisions about who is considered for leadership roles. Women in technical roles are often evaluated against different expectations than their male peers, and this disparity compounds over the course of a career.
- Underrepresentation in senior and field roles: As the data shows, the gap is sharpest at the most senior levels and in the most operationally exposed roles. Women who do enter energy engineering often find that progression to senior technical or leadership positions requires navigating environments where they are consistently in the minority – which has both practical and psychological costs.
- Workplace culture in offshore and remote environments: Offshore platforms, remote construction sites, and onshore facilities have historically been designed around a male workforce. Practical issues – from inadequate facilities and personal protective equipment that does not properly fit women to rotation patterns that assume a particular domestic arrangement – remain genuine friction points that affect the experience of women working in these environments.
- Work-life balance and career breaks: Long rotations, extended site assignments, and international deployments can make career continuity difficult for anyone with caring responsibilities. Women remain disproportionately affected by these pressures, and the energy sector has been slower than some industries to develop flexible working arrangements or return-to-work program’s that acknowledge this reality.
- Lack of visible role models: The lower representation of women in senior technical and leadership roles creates a visibility problem. Younger engineers entering the sector see fewer women in positions they might aspire to, which affects both recruitment into the sector and retention as careers progress. Mentorship and sponsorship by senior women – and by men who actively support gender diversity – are important mitigating factors, but these networks are not equally distributed across organisation’s and geographies.
Reasons for Optimism: Where Real Change Is Happening
The challenges are real, but so is the momentum for change. Several factors are making the energy sector a meaningfully more accessible and equitable workplace for women engineers:
- Growing industry-wide recognition of the business case: Energy companies are increasingly treating gender diversity not as a compliance exercise but as a competitive advantage. Research consistently shows that diverse technical teams make better decisions, identify more risks, and deliver stronger project outcomes. With the sector facing significant talent shortages, the case for broadening the hiring pipeline is also a practical one.
- Targeted diversity initiatives from major operators: Companies including BP, Shell, Total Energies, Equinor, and others have made specific commitments to improving gender representation across their technical and leadership workforce. These commitments are increasingly backed by measurable targets and accountability mechanisms, rather than aspirational statements alone.
- The renewable energy sector as a more inclusive entry point: For women engineers entering the energy sector for the first time, the renewables industry offers a culture that is generally less entrenched than conventional oil and gas, with more active diversity and a higher baseline of female representation across technical roles.
- Flexible working becoming more mainstream: The post-pandemic normalisation of flexible working arrangements, remote engineering, and hybrid schedules has opened up more options for engineers who need to balance career progression with other commitments. This shift is particularly relevant for women returning from career breaks or managing caring responsibilities alongside demanding technical roles.
- Stronger professional networks and mentorship: Organisations including the Society of Women Engineers, the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), and Women in Oil and Energy (WiOE) provide active professional networks, mentorship programmes, and advocacy that genuinely strengthen the career trajectories of women in engineering.
How Engineering Recruitment Agencies Support Women Engineers and Diverse Hiring
Specialist engineering recruitment agencies have a practical role to play in advancing gender diversity in the energy sector – both by connecting talented women engineers with the right opportunities and by working with employers to broaden and improve their hiring practices.
- Connecting women engineers with global opportunities: WRS works with energy companies across oil and gas, offshore, renewables, and construction globally – placing engineers into roles that match their technical skills, experience, and career objectives. We work equally with local national and expatriate candidates, ensuring that geography is not a barrier to the right opportunity.
- Advising employers on inclusive hiring practices: Recruitment partners can offer practical guidance on job description language, shortlisting processes, and interview practices that reduce unconscious bias and broaden the candidate pool. Small changes in how roles are framed and evaluated can meaningfully increase the diversity of applications received.
- Advocating for equitable terms: Women engineers are entitled to the same rates, contract terms, and onboarding support as any other candidate. A good recruitment partner ensures that the terms offered reflect the market value of the role, not assumptions about individual negotiating behaviour.
- Supporting return-to-work transitions: For women returning to engineering after a career break, the right recruiter can provide honest, current market intelligence, help position experience effectively, and identify employers who have genuine return-to-work programmes rather than just aspirational policies.
Ready to Build Your Engineering Career in Energy?
Whether you are an experienced energy engineer looking for your next role, a graduate entering the sector for the first time, or an employer committed to building a more diverse technical team, WRS can help.
WRS connects skilled professionals with leading opportunities across oil and gas, renewable energy, offshore and maritime, and energy construction projects worldwide. Explore our current vacancies, submit your CV, or get in touch with our team to discuss your next career move.
