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NETWORK / 12 / JULY/AUGUST 2016 A ttracting more female workers into the power and gas sectors is accepted as a key element in the war for talent. But is any progress actually being made on industry gender ratios? In the power sector, around 22% of the workforce is female. Power distribution networks more specifically fare even worse, with female representation closer to 10%. Although the balance has improved slightly in recent years, energy and utilities are still well below other professions, which have had a 50/50 split for some time. A report on the energy sector published by consultancy PwC in partnership with the Powerful Women Campaign (set up by Baroness Verma in 2014 to highlight the contributions of female energy sector executives to the industry) earlier this year, does not shy away from the problem, describing the statistics on women in the energy industry as "appalling". Of the top 100 energy companies with headquarters in the UK, only 39% have at least one woman on their board, and just 5% of executive board seats are held by women. "We may not know exactly what equality looks like," says PwC, but it "does not look like this". PwC calls for a dramatic rise in the number of women entering, staying in and reach- Women in industry Easier said than done Talk needs to be matched with action if gender ratios in energy networks are ever to become equal.