Now, women making a mark in the oil industry
New Delhi   03-Aug-2007
<i>IndianOil Employs 903 Women Executives, The Highest Number For A Public Sector Organisation</i> If you thought oil and women don't mix, at least not beyond the kitchen, you couldn't be more wrong. More and more women are fuelling their career aspirations by joining an industry which till now has been dominated by men and occupying top positions. Slowly and steadily, the number of women handling responsibilities at various streams of the oil production business is increasing, though the headcount is negligible in hardcore field jobs such as drilling operations. Women comprise 7.73% of the workforce at refiner-marketer IndianOilCorporation. The company has 29,862 employees — 2,308 of them women. This includes 903 executives, which is the largest number of women executives employed by any public sector organisation in the country. ''IndianOil's policies and working environment attract a large number of women to the company despite the fact that jobs such as refining, transporting and selling petroleum products are unconventional for them,'' says IndianOil's director (human resources) V C Agrawal. Agrawal says women occupy almost all grades of posts, including senior management positions in IndianOil. One of the women executives is an executive director, which is the highest position occupied by a woman officer in the company. IndianOil also helps women's professional growth by rotating their services through different departments and streams as an equal-opportunity employer. ''We do not discriminate on gender basis.Qualification and skillsets are the only qualifiers. Women in IndianOil are given challenging assignments in field locations, put in charge of aviation fuel stations and are part of refinery projects. Take for example Shukla Mistry. She is a senior manager with the Panipat Refinery Project. A sizeable number of women executives handle key jobs like business development, policy-making, vigilance and planning,'' Agrawal says. Over the years, the company has introduced some pathbreaking policies for women employees that help them discharge their dual roles of a career woman and a wife/mother without the threat of loss of employment. ''Many people don't realise that unlike men, women end up playing dual roles. She may have a cook or a domestic help to do the household chores. But she still ends up bearing the responsibility of supervising the helps and other work at home and keeping tabs on children etc,'' Agrawal says. IndianOil has created policy provisions to facilitate discharge of these two esponsibilities. For example, during her career in the company, there may be occasions when a woman might like to join her husband posted at another location. At such times, she is not required to resign and allowed leave without pay for up to two years. Other benefits include child care leave — a unique facility for women that can be availed in continuation of maternity leave or otherwise — till the child attains the age of 3 years. The leave, though without pay, ensures benefits of housing and medical reimbursement to the employee and her dependants. IndianOil also offers a sizeable number of women-specific training programmes every year and women employees also get opportunities to train abroad. Last but not the least, training on gender sensitivity helps create a cordial atmosphere at the workplace.