Fostering women’s participation and leadership in the workplace for a brighter future

Aramco is an energy and chemicals company with oil and gas production as its primary business.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), women account for only around 22% of the workforce in the energy industry.¹ Progress has been made in recent years, but there is still much work to be done.

At Aramco today, we have more women employees and leaders than ever before – from leading engineers in the field to geologists in the lab, and from inventors developing revolutionary processes and technologies to traders selling our oil and refined petroleum products to customers around the world.

Beyond the immediate goal of diversifying our workforce and increasing innovation², we believe our initiatives to advance the participation of women will help establish positive role-models, inspiring future generations of women to pursue successful careers in the dynamic field of energy.

Pioneering innovation

Paving the way

Pioneering women who lead and inspire others are far from new to our culture. Nearly 60 years ago, Najat al-Husseini became the first Saudi woman to work as a scientist at Aramco. She used her education and skills in preventative medicine to provide vital vaccinations against diseases such as smallpox and malaria for children in neighboring communities, helping to eradicate these diseases.

Fast forward to today, and more female engineers and scientists than ever before are carrying Najat's torch. Their work is vital in advancing groundbreaking technologies and processes, including storing carbon dioxide in cement, identifying new opportunities for nonmetallics, and directly converting crude oil to chemicals at our Research & Development Centers (R&DC).

Nurturing new talent

Discovering and nurturing the next generation of engineers and scientists is a critical part of what we do. We have invested in educational programs to support young Saudis studying at academies and universities – both locally and abroad – over the last several decades. This includes our Advanced Degree Program, which began in the 1980s and helps employees get their Master’s degrees in key STEM subjects.

Every year, we sponsor a new cohort of talented Saudi high school graduates to study for a Bachelor’s degree abroad through our College Degree Program for Non-Employees (CDPNE). This involves a comprehensive 10-month course to help them prepare for the challenges of enrolling at a top-tier university, support as they study, and a job for them on completion.

We reap the rewards of these programs today, with young talent and fresh perspectives injected into our organization every year. This has also led to the increased representation of women in our work, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. As of March 2024, the number of women scientists and engineers alone in our organization has increased by 1,300% compared to 2006.

Creating more opportunities

The greater the diversity of talent, the more opportunity for innovation and growth. And our various educational programs are just one part of our wider Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Division, which aims to create a vibrant and inclusive company culture for employees in five key areas: Recruitment, Retention, Advancement, Leadership, and D&I Role Models.

The result is that every part of our business benefits from fostering an inclusive culture and workplace, which enables us to attract the most talented candidates and give them greater freedom to innovate.

Looking beyond our industry

We have also developed and launched GROW (Gulf Region Organization for Women), a collective of 86 government and private-sector organizations, working together to advance women’s professional opportunities regionally.

By uniting such a broad range of businesses, educational institutes, and service providers around a common goal, GROW has already helped thousands of women, opening up access to thought leaders, sharing best practices, and creating new opportunities through forums and virtual webinars.

_{1 Source: IEA: Energy and Gender iea.org/topics/energy-and-gender
2 BCG and WPC Energy: Untapped Reserves 3.0}