Originally known as Women of Woodside, Gender Equality Matters (GEM) is an employee initiative that has driven significant change in the Woodside workforce. Formed with the goals of eliminating gender bias and encouraging change necessary to achieve gender equity and equality, GEM now has more than 1300 members across Woodside, about one-third of them being male. This aligns with a conscious shift at the time of the renaming to GEM in 2018, when an inaugural five-year strategic plan was introduced and the initiative’s first ever male co-chair elected (alongside a female co-chair), with an aim of promoting the role that all employees have to play in eliminating gender bias.
Since 2017, Woodside’s overall female participation has grown from 29.6 per cent to 32.7 per cent and females in leadership roles have increased from 17.7 per cent to 25.2 per cent, while the company’s annual graduate intake in 2021 was 51 per cent female. GEM now has an international presence – including through GEM Senegal – and collaborates on shared learnings with the likes of Worley, Wood, Chevron, BHP, Rio Tinto, Women In Subsea Engingeering, Empowering Women In Energy, the Energy Club and the National Association of Women in Operations.