UK energy sector still behind on female representation in leadership

The UK energy sector is still failing to remove career barriers for women, but gender balance is within reach. This was revealed by an analysis released by POWERful Women (PfW), in collaboration with Bain & Company.

Despite improvements at some levels, the sector currently has less than 40% female representation in leadership and middle management, a target that POWERful Women, an organisation that seeks to address the continued underrepresentation of women at the top of the UK energy industry and in the leadership pipeline, has set the industry for 2030.

Cordi O'Hara, President of National Grid Electricity Distribution, called the results "bittersweet" and said that "we've got to focus on acceleration." She echoed these sentiments during the panel discussion after Monica Coolings, POWERful Women's Chair, unveiled the results.

The Annual State of the Nation Report 2025, which this year benchmarks female representation in an expanded list of the largest 100 UK energy employers, shows that across the whole sector, women are in:

• 30% of company board roles (executive and non-executive), a small increase from 29% in 2024.
• 16% of executive director roles on boards, up from 15% in 2024.
• 34% of leadership roles, unchanged from 2024.
• 34% of middle management roles, which saw the highest increase, from 32% in 2024.
• 15 UK energy companies still have no female board members at all
• 73% of company boards still have no female executive directors

Unveiling the statistics, Monica Collings, Chair of POWERful Women, said: “I am pleased to see that a focus in the past year on women in middle management – and addressing culture and retention issues to support their careers – might at last be delivering results, as we’ve seen the most significant increase at that level, and this suggests a potential pipeline for future leaders too." 

However, the results showed that there had been no progress on women in energy leadership; those numbers had stayed stagnant. It also showed that there were still energy companies with no women at all on their boards.

The report revealed that only 8% of CEOs and 9% of Board Chairs in the top 100 energy companies are women. The CFO role has the highest female representation, with women holding 16% of positions.

During the panel, Coolings said: "The fact there are still companies out there who don't have women on their boards... that's not on."

Moreover, the energy sector is significantly behind the Financial Times Stock Exchange 350 Index (FTSE 350), which has already achieved its 40% women on boards 2025 target, which is unattainable by the energy sector unless each company adds one woman to its board within the next six months.

However, there are reasons for optimism. Five of the nine female Chairs, three of the eight female CEOs and eight of the 13 female CFOs were appointed in the last two years. Furthermore, the number of companies adding women to their boards over the past 12 months outpaced those removing them.

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The path to gender balance is achievable

The report shows that, despite slow progress, POWERful Women’s 40% targets for women in leadership and middle management are within reach, as long as there is focused action by energy companies.  On average, each of the top 100 companies in the energy sector needs to add five female leadership team members and 38 female middle managers by 2030 to bridge the gap to 40%.

Olga Muscat, partner at Bain & Company and leader of the firm’s UK Utilities and Renewables practice, commented: “We need to be tapping into, and developing, all pools of talent to meet our net zero ambitions and to overcome the UK’s green skills gap..."

The report highlights that there is still work to be done in increasing women's participation in the energy sector, especially in leadership roles. Muscat stated that "this is an area where industries should collaborate".

Minister for Industry Sarah Jones, who could not attend the event but sent a video message, said in part: "We are putting social inclusion at the heart of our clean energy workforce strategy, which we are developing at the moment and very excited about, and we are launching this summer."

Even with the bleak image that has been painted about the stagnant number of women in leadership positions, companies such as Cadent Gas Limited, National Grid, Good Energy Group, bp and Harbour Energy stand out as the top five performers for women in leadership, with most of them showing a year on year improvement.