Abstract
This issue surrounding gender equality has remained an unresolved pandemic which has been identified as critical to the achievement of national development goals. In fact, the attainment of gender equality is not only seen as an end in itself, it is equally a catalyst to, and a sine-qua-non for the achievement of sustainable development. Generally, the oil and gas sector has being categorized as being the least gender diverse sector despite recent efforts to promote and encourage women’s participation. The continuous orientation and stereotyping of the oil and gas industry as a masculine profession tailored for the male counterparts alone has restricted the promotion of gender equality. The main aim of this work is to examine the issue of gender equality and its effects in relation to the oil and gas industry. The Methodology used for this research is the doctrinal method of research and references would be made to existing literature. Furthermore, it gives an insight into the fact that although women represent roughly a fifth of the oil and gas sector workforce, women account for significantly smaller share of the workforce than they do in most industries. The industry’s women also work disproportionately in business and commercial roles as they possess very limited presence in technical posts, which are often considered prerequisites for career advancement, and upper management roles. Also, the underrepresentation of women’s ascension to top directorship positions is embedded in the African socio-cultural patriarchy. The research concludes that there are no adequate legal regulations on gender equality in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and recommended the domestication of international laws, eradication of non-gender friendly laws and deliberate policy endorsements for a mandatory legislative quota and gender. The dissertation highlights the challenges to gender equality in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria but looked into the potentials that could be leveraged from having a potentially sizeable and critical pool of talent from a mixed gender platform.
Keywords: Gender Equality, Oil and Gas Industry, Nigeria, Local Content, Discrimination