The most recent report from the FTSE Women Leaders Review (published in February 2025), revealed that the representation of women on FTSE 350 Boards is now 43%, up from 42% the previous year and already achieving its 2025 40% target. There are now no all-male boards in the FTSE350.
The number of women in leadership positions (executive committee and their direct reports) is 35%. The overall trend in the four key roles (Chair, CEO, CFO and SID) has been positive this year. For the FTSE 350, the number of Chairs increased significantly, up seven to 60 Chairs (17%), Finance Directors are up nine to 57 in number (22%), and Senior Independent Directors increased by 30 to 192 (56%). In contrast, the number of women CEOs fell one to 19 this year.
In their sector breakdown for FTSE 350 companies, Energy ranks 14th out of 21 sectors for women in leadership.
The UK’s 50 largest private companies are keeping pace with the FTSE 100 companies with women’s representation in leadership roles now at 37% and well within reach of the 40% target, but there is work to do to move the proportion of women on boards beyond 31%.
Progress in the FTSE is encouraging (and ahead of the energy sector as a whole). But, as the report says, there is still much to do.
Energy sector (global):
Globally, female representation in the energy industry and its sub-sectors is monitored by a number of organisations and reports:
The International Energy Agency (IEA) tracks gender in the global energy sector as a whole. Despite making up 39% of the global labour force women only account for 16% of the traditional energy sector. On average, “there are 76% fewer women than men working in the energy sector, a significant difference from the average 8% gap seen in the total workforce, according to 2018 data from 29 countries (22 IEA members)”. Find out more here.
OIL & GAS: ‘Untapped Reserves 3.0’ by Boston Consulting Group and WPC Energy is the latest edition of research that has tracked the number of women working in oil and gas for the past seven years. The 2023 report shows that women make up 23% of the global oil and gas workforce, up very slightly from 22% in 2021. Find out more here.
RENEWABLES: ‘Renewable Energy: A Gender Perspective’ by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) showed that in 2019 32% of the renewable energy workforce were women. A later study focussing on just wind energy, found that women make up just 21% of that sector’s workforce. The most recent study in 2022 looked at the solar PV sector and found that the share of women working full time is 40%. Find out more here.
NUCLEAR: ‘Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector’ by the Nuclear Energy Agency reported in 2023 that women make up only 24.9% of the nuclear sector workforce in NEA countries. Find out more here.
UK energy sector only:
Our own most recent analysis at POWERful Women, compiled in collaboration with Bain & Company, shows that, as at Q1 2024, women still occupy only 29% of all (executive and non-executive) board seats (the same as in 2023) and 16% of executive board positions (again, no improvement from last year).
74% of companies have no female executive directors on their board and 20% of companies have no women on their board at all (1% improvement on last year). Women occupy 34% of leadership roles (same definition as the FTSE WL Review) and 32% of middle management roles in UK energy companies in 2024.
Find our full 2024 Annual State of the Nation Statistics here including the report, press release and launch recording.
‘Energy +’ sectors at all levels:
Data from the Energy & Utility Skills Partnership shows that in 2024 women constitute 28% of the energy and utility workforce across all levels (note that this is for all utilities, including water for example).
Official statistics from the UK’s Office of National Statistics in 2023 shows that women make up 29% of the workforce in the UK’s ‘electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning’ industrial sector. In Q1 of 2025, there were 142,000 women over 16 working in the UK energy sector, according to the ONS Labour Force Survey May 2025.
