Careers News

Change is Happening

Celebrating women in technology

Diversity is central to our identity as a company; it always has been. Gender is an essential element of diversity, and since the late 1970s, when we first started recruiting women for roles in energy operations, we have made a concerted effort to develop policies and take action towards further balancing gender in our workforce.

One thing we’ve learned is that gender balancing is more complex than simply hiring more women; it requires a multifaceted approach.

Attracting female talent

When it comes to attracting and retaining employees, our approach at Schlumberger is to hire outstanding talent around the globe; provide excellent training; and foster a culture of innovation, teamwork, and individual career development.

You can see from our archive video footage dating back from the 1980s, that for many decades, women have been enjoying varied and successful careers at Schlumberger. This is true across all parts of the business.

Empowering women in technology

Schlumberger monitors compensation equality for women and men across all job grades globally, and we comply with applicable laws and regulations requiring gender diversity and pay parity data reporting. Our dual-career policies exist to help mobile couples manage their career planning. We always strive to account for family considerations when making personnel and assignment decisions and facilitate flexible working practices where possible.

We stay current on the latest thinking and policies in gender diversity, and partner with other leading organizations to discuss best practices and tackle challenges worldwide, working together to set global industry standards for diversity and inclusion.

We are committed to providing a dynamic working environment where talent can flourish. Our employee resource groups are essential to gathering feedback, improving engagement on diversity and inclusion topics, and driving action at a local level. Connect Women is an internal Schlumberger networking community of approximately 7,000 members, in which women and men exchange ideas, promote gender equality, and support career progression. Another internal networking group, Men for Change, seeks to engage men to become advocates of gender diversity and inclusion.

Our events and workshops also play an important role—bringing together our people so that they can connect and share their experiences. We recently launched an internal webinar series named ‘Unplugged’ where female role models answer the most asked questions about being a woman in the energy industry and reflect on what it’s like having a career in the field.

Education initiatives

We believe that empowering the educational advancement of school children and women makes a powerful contribution to developing economies, as well as to the individuals themselves. Our community outreach programs are fully aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Encouraging women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) vocations is also a priority for us. For example, the Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED) program takes a grassroots approach to enable educators in underserved communities where we live and work to engage their young students in science and technology, particularly in robotics and coding. At the other end of the education spectrum, the Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future program awards fellowships to women from developing and emerging economies to facilitate PhD or post-doctoral research in STEM at leading universities worldwide. Graduates typically return to their home countries where they become powerful role models, inspiring girls and women to pursue science-related vocations.

Gender by the numbers

For updated 2022 stats, please see our latest sustainability report here, or our Careers FAQ page here. We set our first gender balance target in 1994, to have women comprise 15% of our salaried workforce by 2015. We achieved that goal ahead of schedule in 2011. Our current goal is to have women comprise 25% of our salaried workforce by 2025. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 we improved our gender balance by 8% and women now represent 22.6% of Schlumberger’s salaried employees worldwide.

Women and technology events

As part of our annual Women and Technology initiatives this year, virtual events are being planned in many locations over the coming months.

Meanwhile, we invite you to meet some of the women of Schlumberger by reading the role model profiles below. New profiles will be added regularly so be sure to check back to meet more of our inspirational employees.