Female employees make up only sixteen percent of oil and gas industry workers, according to a 2018 report by the Petroleum Equipment and Services Association.
One of these women is Ashley Raff, a Natural Resources Administrator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Division.
Raff says when she started working as a geologist on a drilling rig back in 2012, her coworkers were almost all male.
“I could tell that I was one of the first women people [had] seen on location. And it was a little intimidating,” she said.
Raff said that she worked to excel at her job and ignored any passing comments from her male peers.
“In no time I was able to earn their respect, from everyone, and I was just seen as another hand on location,” she said.
More and more women are entering the energy industry, includingleadership positions. An S&P global report showed that the share of women on the boards of oil and gas companies doubled between 2009 and 2019.