Keypoints
- The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has called for an end to the systemic exclusion of women from leadership and technical roles in the energy sector.
- Speaking at the PENGASSAN Women Convention in Abuja, Country Director Vanessa Phala-Moyo noted that women remain “underrepresented and undervalued” in key decision-making positions.
- The ILO identified occupational segregation and weak labor law enforcement as primary barriers, with women often confined to administrative rather than high-paying technical roles.
- Experts warned that the global energy transition poses a risk of disproportionate job losses for women if inclusive policies are not prioritized now.
- PENGASSAN leadership urged women to focus on “impact over titles” and stressed the importance of mentorship and gender-responsive collective bargaining.
Main Story
The dream of gender parity in Nigeria’s most lucrative industry remains a distant goal, according to the latest assessment from the ILO.
Addressing the third edition of the PENGASSAN Women Convention on Thursday, ILO Country Director Vanessa Phala-Moyo delivered a blunt critique of the status quo, labeling gender equality in the oil and gas sector as an “illusion.”
She argued that despite years of global discourse, structural barriers—including restrictive social norms and wage inequality—continue to gatekeep women from the industry’s most influential and high-paying roles.
The convention, themed “The Dynamic Woman: Shaping Tomorrow,” highlighted a critical inflection point: the shift toward green energy. Phala-Moyo warned that the energy transition could inadvertently widen the gender gap if women are not intentionally integrated into the new technical frameworks of the future.
To combat this, the ILO is calling for a multi-pronged approach: strengthening anti-discrimination laws, enforcing gender-responsive policies in trade unions, and aggressively pushing for more female participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields to break the cycle of administrative confinement.
The Issues
The primary challenge is the occupational-segregation gap; while women are present in the oil and gas workforce, they are statistically more likely to hold “support” roles rather than the engineering or “field” positions that lead to executive leadership.
Authorities must solve the problem of wage-growth stagnation, where women in the sector frequently experience slower career progression and lower pay compared to male counterparts with identical qualifications. Furthermore, there is a transition-exclusion risk; as the world moves away from fossil fuels, the lack of women in technical “future-energy” roles could lead to mass layoffs of female staff who are primarily in legacy administrative departments. To ensure a “just transition,” industry players must adopt gender-responsive collective bargaining that specifically protects female tenure during restructuring.
What’s Being Said
- “Gender equality in the oil and gas sector remains more of an illusion than reality… women continue to face systemic barriers,” stated Vanessa Phala-Moyo.
- Ada Mbanaso, National Chairperson of the PENGASSAN Women Commission, encouraged women to “prioritize impact over titles” to drive meaningful change.
What’s Next
- A gender-responsive policy audit is expected to be proposed by PENGASSAN to major oil firms to track the ratio of women in “hard” technical roles versus administrative ones.
- STEM mentorship programs are anticipated to ramp up across Nigerian universities in late 2026, funded by industry players looking to meet international ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards.
- Legislative advocacy for stronger anti-discrimination laws in the petroleum sector is likely to be a key agenda item for the National Assembly’s labor committee in the 2027 session.
- The 2027 Women Convention will likely focus on “Success Metrics,” moving from identifying barriers to presenting data on women who have successfully transitioned into renewable energy leadership.
Bottom Line The ILO’s message to the Nigerian oil industry is clear: diversity is not a “corporate social responsibility” box to be checked, but a structural necessity. As the world redefines how it powers itself, the sector must decide if it will continue to operate as a “men’s club” or evolve into a modern, inclusive engine for the 2026 economy.
