SUPPLY CHAIN | RECRUITING WOMEN TO NUCLEAR
The salary differential ranged between 0.7% and -28%, while women’s salaries were 19.5% less than men’s overall. The single exception was in France, where the difference was small and actually favoured women by a narrow margin.
Above:
That women are severely underrepresented in STEM and leadership roles shows that many countries are losing access to a vast pool of talent
Of the 26,378 total employees who left their jobs in
Below: Marie Curie is fondly remembered as a titan of the nuclear sector
2021, just 24% were women. Fewer women left their jobs at the middle management level and above, with the highest attrition levels at non-management and lower management levels. As the report points out, this attrition ‘represents leakage from the leadership pipeline’ and will ultimately result in a smaller pool of women at the upper management level. It may also have something to do with the fact that women’s promotions were ‘particularly poor’, says the report, for STEM workers in jobs that do not require a university degree. Just 17% of these promotions went to women, compared with 35% for non-STEM workers: women in non-STEM professional roles were promoted at a much higher rate (61%). While the average man’s salary was calculated at
US$56,445 and the average woman’s at $53,514, pay parity varied considerably between countries, the report found.
How women see nuclear as a career Attracting more women to work in the nuclear sector will be crucial to rebalancing the workforce. While a majority (59%) of women working in the sector said they would recommend it to other women, the data offer a somewhat mixed message with geographical disparities – for example, 72% of female nuclear workers in northern Europe would recommend a nuclear career to another woman, compared to just 27% in Asia and Oceania. And a third (33%) of survey respondents said they would neither encourage nor discourage their women friends and family from taking up a nuclear career. When asked to rank various factors’ importance for a decision to pursue a nuclear career, the survey respondents said improved visibility of women in the sector, including in STEM and leadership positions, was the most important. This was followed by a more woman-friendly workstyle, including flexible working, and by more support for and value of women’s contributions in the workplace. And, when asked how to recruit more women into the sector and improve their opportunities for development and advancement, respondents ranked family-friendly workplace solutions such as childcare and extended maternity leave as most crucial, followed closely by pay parity and mentoring programmes for women at all professional levels. While barriers exist for women aiming to take up a
nuclear career, less than half (43%) of respondents believed them to be particular to the sector. Barriers identified included a lack of women in leadership positions, social preconceptions that certain roles are reserved for men, the need to balance family responsibilities, and unsupportive work cultures. Indeed, the report noted that two-thirds of respondents said ‘stereotyping, microaggressions, unconscious bias, and male-dominated work cultures inhibit women’s full contributions and negatively impact their career trajectory’. And although 58% of respondents said women are
supported, encouraged and valued in their workplace, the geographical variation was substantial, from 76% agreement in Northern Europe to 38% in Latin America. Just half of respondents working in power generation or decommissioning felt positively included and valued, while those in regulation (72%) and at new nuclear reactor build sites (65%) felt the most positive. Disturbingly, workplace sexual harassment (experienced
personally or by a colleague) was reported by 45% of respondents, and over half said they had experienced ‘hostile behaviour or attitudes to women in the workplace’. These responses ‘were particularly acute,’ the report noted, ‘in Latin America, Northern America and Northern Europe, at nuclear power plants and international organisations, among minorities, and in STEM roles, especially those requiring fewer educational credentials’. Women’s visibility in leadership and STEM roles varied
widely by geographical location and type of organisation, the report found, with the highest visibility in regulation, at new-build sites and within government. In general, 51%
36 | August 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
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