Leaky Pipeline
Could the retention of mid-career STEM women be a symptom of a talent issue within our energy industry?
I first heard about the issue of retention for mid career STEM women being referred to as a ‘Leaky Pipeline’ back in 2021. Having spent two decades in the oil and gas industry, with over half of that time working within in-situ operational roles, I found this high-level analogy to be incredibly intriguing.
Firstly when it comes to oil and gas, there are specific drivers that incentivize operations to run as smoothly as possible – namely profitability and government regulations. A key component to successful business for oil and gas companies is ensuring the integrity of their assets. Vessels and pipelines are subjected to monitoring and maintenance, regular inspections to prevent production-loss incidents and when required remediations to ensure containment.
Our industry is highly skilled when it comes to pipeline design, construction, and operations. By no means am I a Subject Matter Expert for pipelines. However, I am knowledgeable in how oil and gas producers ensure their commodities are safely and securely transported from the wellhead to the point of custody transfer, being monitored and measured from point-A to point-B.
Additionally, our industry employs a large proportion of engineers and technical professionals, experienced problem solvers, who know that the first step to assessing a problem is to identify the variables contributing to the issue. Engineers are trained to analyze problems through the examination of details, trending of plots, and posing endless questions before deciding how best to move forward.
“What do we know from our physical pipelines that we could apply to the workforce pipeline?”
All of this left me with the following questions:
How could it be that this industry has a metaphorical pipeline leak but are unable to fix it?
What are the contributing factors causing this leak of mid-career STEM women?
How are these contributing factors possibly affecting the rest of the workforce?
What do we know from our physical pipelines that we could apply to the workforce pipeline?
What if the same amount of rigour used in oil and gas operations was applied within organizations to their most important commodity – the people?
So, let’s dive in, shall we?
In 2022, I was working at COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance) and spent my days bringing together working groups and consortiums across the oil sands industry so they could collaborate to innovate. The approach was to share operational and technical challenges and then work collaboratively to improve the issues through innovation and technology development.
I thought this inspiring model could be used towards a real-world social problem, specifically one that was near and dear to my heart – the retention of mid- career STEM Women.
“What if the same amount of rigour used in oil and gas operations was applied within organizations to their most important commodity – the people? “
I kicked off The STEM Moms Project and committed to spending my ‘free time’ performing a ‘root cause analysis’ on this mid-career Women in STEM retention issue in an attempt to solve my hypothesis that it was somehow correlated to the transition to parenthood.
What followed was a one-year long project, including 15 focus groups and over 50 participants to discuss all things at the intersection of Working Parent + Woman in STEM with the intention to understand:
What are the challenges causing women to leave the professions at the mid-career point?
What do these issues look like?
What is unique about these specific challenges?
What are the variables and contributing factors? How could they be better?
The endeavour resulted in three recommendations for consideration towards the improved retention of mid-career Women in STEM (full report and findings here: www.stemmomsproject.com).
Peeling back the onion of the STEM Moms Project revealed that one of the biggest levers to retaining Women in STEM and Working Parents is associated with workplace practices and policies related to workplace cultures and general non-gendered retention.
Stats Canada numbers state that 62% of families in Canada are dual income, with 19% single parent families – accounting for 81% of Canadian families that do not have a stay-at-home parent fully dedicated to managing both the family and the home. Working parenthood is a two-decades long endeavour and mathematically parents likely make up the largest grouping within our workforce.
“ ... one of the biggest levers to retaining Women in STEM and Working Parents is associated with workplace practices and policies related to workplace cultures and general non-gendered retention. “
Many participants of the project felt unsupported as dual career families, attempting to share the parenting and household responsibilities with a co- parent who was simultaneously attempting to progress their own career. Inclusive, family-friendly and flexible policies allow both parents to advance their careers, actively participate in the home and allow for meaningful relationships between children and both their parents.
Participants also shared that a lack of support at the mid career phase for individual contributors not on the leadership path, by chance or by choice, was a challenging aspect. From both the angles of feeling engaged and supported, but also understanding what opportunities might exist for future growth and being fairly compensated for a technical career path.
What does this have to do with pipelines?
When it comes to pipeline design there are core containment principles to lean on. Specific materials are selected for sour gas to reduce the risk of corrosion. Steam lines use pressure let-down valves at the pad edge. Gas systems often require compression at specific locations to increase the pressure and ensure the commodity reaches its intended destination. We analyze and monitor for erosional velocity along bends. There is hardly an operational condition that is not considered when it comes to the optimal design of a pipeline system.
Once a piping system is designed and constructed, it is subjected to rigorous monitoring and maintenance to ensure uninterrupted operation. Realtime data is available, high and low set-points are selected for alarming systems, and redundancy is utilized to ensure that data is continuously monitored and accurate.
What if workplace policies were assessed for weak points in the system?
Just as equipment and piping are assessed for higher levels of corrosion and risk of leaks with the proper reinforcement provided to ensure the system runs smoothly – what if this same approach was used towards employee retention?
What if as an industry the goal was workforce optimization by prioritizing wellness, whether that’s prevention of burnout for women and providing mental health supports for men – how might the work performance improve?
Are people feeling valued, supported, engaged? Are they fit to come to work mentally? Just as physical safety is prioritized in the field, are employees at all locations showing up as their best selves so that they’re able to contribute their best work?
“What if as an industry the goal was workforce optimization by prioritizing wellness?”
What is the business case of the above? How can these benefits be quantified and prove that the value exists?
The past two years spent advocating for mid-career women in STEM has validated something that I have known since the start of my career close to two decades ago - Gender focused initiatives are important, but their effectiveness is challenged when buy-in is required from people who feel they have nothing to gain through engagement.
Asking peers to be allies because it’s the right thing to do doesn’t appear to work on a large scale. This is not a criticism, if anything it is the reality of human nature.
“ ... think outside of the box – what tools from your trade can you apply to a problem or an issue that you are passionate about?”
What if a different and less polarizing approach was applied – what about focusing on polices that improve outcomes for the general population (in this case working parents) but have a magnified impact on a smaller population within the group (i.e. STEM mothers)? Could it work?
The response to the STEM Moms Project is often one of intrigue and surprise but using an analytical and problem-solving approach towards a topic that I am passionate about seems quite logical to me. It is the connections made and conversations had that make me feel hopeful for positive and productive change towards a more supported and engaged workforce, and hopefully the retention for women will follow.
I encourage you to think outside of the box – what tools from your trade can you apply to a problem or an issue that you are passionate about?
Julie Hawco is an engineer with over 15 years of experience working in Canada’s Energy sector focused on subsurface, operations, technology development and collaborative innovation. Currently she works as a development engineer at Suncor focusing on technology commercialization for insitu oil sands. Julie is a dedicated volunteer within Alberta’s energy ecosystem, a 2023 Young Women in Energy Award Winner and the founder of the STEM Moms Project – an initiative focused on improving the retention of mid-career STEM women.