Making the business case for gender diversity

At one level, the business case for gender diversity is as simple and as obvious as not arbitrarily discarding resumes without looking at them. As the hiring executive, you would be outraged at the lost potential if half of your applicant pool were arbitrarily discarded. The price of ignoring gender diversity is high, and it is measured in lost potential, lost opportunities and lost credibility. It is so obvious that there seems little reason to discuss it in 2006, more than 30 years after women began entering the workforce in large numbers. Yet, women are still under-represented in the oil industry compared to other industries. While women make up more than 46% of the overall US workforce, they are only 22% of the petroleum and coal production industry and less than 21% of the refining industry (see figure). This includes all levels; the percentage of women in management, especially in engineering roles, is even smaller.