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Gender

鈥淧rogress towards gender equality is non-negotiable.鈥 Huibert Vigeveno, Shell Downstream Director.

Advancing towards Gender Equality

In 1997, when we set our first global diversity goals, just 4% of our senior leadership were women. Today, for the first time in Shell鈥檚 history, our Executive Committee has a majority of women and we have an ambition to achieve 40% women in our senior leadership globally by 2030. We are proud of our progress and have an ongoing focus on removing barriers for women across our global organisation. You can read more about our Ambitions around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Woman smiling

Gender equality encompasses so much more than metrics and data; it鈥檚 about our inclusive culture and fairness in opportunity for everyone. It requires us to acknowledge real and perceived barriers, from multiple angles. Here are some of the things we鈥檙e doing at Shell, subject to local laws and context:

A strategy shaped by our people

It鈥檚 crucial that our action plans are shaped by the voices and experiences at Shell. Like many companies, Shell has focussed on the importance of gender equality for decades. Our focus is on taking practical action to break down the barriers to true gender equality, wherever our colleagues may be located 鈥 that countries are in different places in terms of progress.

  • Our global forum, Shell Global Allies for Gender Equity (鈥渆nGAGE鈥), is a safe space that brings the voices from our gender focused employee resource groups together across the globe to share and leverage ideas, and acts as a valuable resource for each other as well as senior leadership. It focuses on global allyship to increase awareness of gender imbalance and also provides development, mentoring, and networking opportunities to strengthen Shell鈥檚 talent pipeline.
  • Employee Resource Groups: The role of staff in shaping our strategy extends to country level. In addition to all our other employee groups, we support 37 employee resource groups around the world focussed on gender and allyship. We value our employee resource groups and nurture their development as part of our strategy towards increased employee engagement and maintaining an inclusive workplace.

To learn more about our strategy, read our Ambitions around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and our Pillars and Goals and Guiding Principles.

Executive sponsors driving progress

Recognising the importance of senior executive sponsorship to drive progress, all our Executive Committee who report directly into our CEO, sponsor progress.

The power of staff stories

By creating safe spaces to share and listen to each other鈥檚 experiences, we can learn more about what each of us can do differently to make someone else鈥檚 experience better. By doing so, we can all contribute to a more inclusive world. Many Shell colleagues around the world continue to courageously share their inspiring stories, which has created a deeper level of empathy among staff to reflect on and become stronger active allies.

Kimberly

鈥淚 had a teacher that told me I [a black girl] would never be a lawyer. That I should have some other expectation.鈥 Kimberly is a General Counsel at Shell and has long been an advocate for increased diversity in the legal and energy sectors. Her global team of 90 legal professionals work on some of Shell鈥檚 most complex global legal issues

Kimberly

Unique People, Powerful Together: Kimberly, General Counsel at Shell, shares her journey to becoming a senior lawyer

A role for everyone

Whilst countries may be at different places in their DE&I journeys, no-one has grown up in a world free from bias. Shell employees and contractors are required to complete training courses that reinforce expected behaviours for a respectful, inclusive workplace, and build our stance against discrimination and harassment, including bullying and sexual harassment. Employees and contractors are required to take these courses every two years.

The training helps ensure colleagues know what鈥檚 expected of them, it gives them tools to use every day and guidance on being an ally and intervening in the moment. Whilst it鈥檚 only one part of building an inclusive culture, it is an essential one when combined with our other actions to drive meaningful change. We continue to focus on building individual accountability and have launched internal staff modules that focus on Equity and Allyship.

Talent and leadership programmes, mentoring and sponsorship

Across the world, we recognise that certain groups in society can experience additional challenges or potential barriers to access education, development or training opportunities. We offer development programmes for early, mid and senior careers. In addition, our leadership programmes embed the importance of inclusive leadership, care and empathy among upcoming leaders. We also offer various mentoring, reverse mentoring and sponsorship programmes. We鈥檒l keep exploring ways to overcome the practical barriers that our people may face.

Flexible working in Shell

We seek to build a sense of community and collaboration within Shell's sites where we want employees to feel welcome and valued. By enabling people to balance their work and personal lives, we can help them perform at their best. Our Future of Work guide advises employees and team leaders on hybrid working options.

Pay, benefits and well-being

Pay is an important part of working life. Our Fair Pay Principles are designed to manage pay at Shell and help us ensure that employees are valued, respected and recognised for the work they do. Shell's pay is designed to be market competitive and free from bias. The basis for paying fairly is equal pay for equal work, taking into account factors such as performance and experience. Through regular benchmarking, Shell's compensation is typically higher than the minimum wage level observed locally, including in countries without legislation on minimum wage. Pay adjustment at Shell is linked to performance and we share this information with employees to help them understand how their pay adjustments are made. We continue to engage employees transparently and openly about our pay policies to help build understanding, trust and confidence in our approach.

Shell provides a range of benefits, such as global minimum standards for life, accident and disability cover, as well as maternity and parental leave, except in certain cases where we are precluded from offering this. Our benefits packages are tailored to each country to meet the requirements of local laws and regulations.

Samantha

Voluntary Self-Identification (Self-ID)

By better understanding who we are, we can work towards where we want to be. We currently collect gender data globally. At the end of 2024, 93% of our employees had access to voluntary self-ID in our HR system, which includes an option to voluntarily declare gender identity where relevant and legal. This will allow us to better track our progress with increased data insights, better understand different groups鈥 experiences, identify strengths that we can continue to build on, and identify opportunities for improvement.

Woman Smiling

Driving inclusion in our communities

Shell is active in external organisations and activities that advance gender equality. We pledge our support to external commitments and ambitions because it increases transparency on what we stand for; we benefit from access to good practice with fellow advocates to inform where we can do more; and because our support, as a large and visible global company, can act as a catalyst for others to follow.

We participate in the FTSE Women Leaders Review which aims to improve the representation of women on the Boards and Leadership teams in FTSE 350 companies. Our CEO, Wael Sawan, re-endorsed the , which sees CEOs coming together to accelerate and advance women, particularly women from ethnic minorities, into senior leadership and board positions. We have also signed the  declaration on closing the gender gap in the oil and gas sector.

Supporting the STEM pipeline

Engineering is critical to Shell鈥檚 success. Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers have struggled for decades to attract more women. We continue to focus on attracting and developing women, including in STEM and leadership roles, and removing barriers to participation and progression.

Working with others

FTSE Women Leaders Review

Shell participates in the 麻豆传媒 FTSE Women Leaders Review which aims to improve the representation of women on the Boards and Leadership teams in FTSE 350 companies.

Read more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Shell

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