Driving diversity
Gender diversity drives business performance. EGA currently employs more than 470 women around the world, in roles ranging from shift technicians to Executive leadership.
We aim to increase the proportion of women in supervisory roles at EGA to 25 per cent by 2025, compared to more than 20 per cent today, and for women to hold 15 per cent of all positions at EGA by 2026.
The UAE is one of only a few countries in the world where more women than men graduate in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. It is important to our future success that we attract and retain the most able people from this talent pool.
Our commitment to fostering gender diversity
“Diversity of people gives us diversity of thought, and having different mindsets ensures that we think about issues and strategies from different angles to obtain the best outcome for EGA. Although we have made considerable progress, we recognise that we need to do more. We want the best people to join EGA irrespective of their gender, and to progress based on their ability and commitment to succeed.
“Historically and worldwide, women’s participation in heavy industry has lagged other sectors. Reaching our target will be challenging, but I am confident that we can do it. When we are successful, we will set a new target to make further progress.”
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban - EGA CEO
To meet our gender diversity target, we are taking action at every level – from retrofitting basic facilities for women in operational areas that were built decades ago, to providing opportunities to prepare for senior leadership roles.
In 2020, EGA launched the Women’s Network, a forum for women at all levels of the company to share their achievements and challenges, and to develop and grow.
In 2022, EGA became a signatory to the Women’s Empowerment Principals, and joined a global community of businesses committed to promoting gender equality and working collaboratively to foster business practices that empower women.
EGA is a partner of Aurora50, a UAE initiative to build the pipeline of women with the required experience for board-level positions. Some 12 positions on subsidiary boards within EGA have been taken by women since the start of 2022.
EGA tracks gender balance in recruitment, retention and succession planning. Each department at EGA has a target to improve gender diversity every year, to enable us to reach our collective goal.
In 2023, EGA launched the Challenger programme with other major UAE industrial companies to make quicker progress on promoting gender diversity together.