Please don’t just ask me to talk about diversity

I am frequently one of the few women in the room, and I always feel a pang of dread when I see a panel about diversity and inclusion. Are they just going to ask these qualified, talented, intelligent women superficial questions about ‘what diversity means’ and ‘why inclusion matters’? Not again…

Let’s ask women about their own fields of expertise, please and thank you. Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Let’s show young girls that there are successful women in STEM for them to look up to – women who talk about things that matter to them and are respected by their peers for the expertise, perspective and knowledge they bring with them.

There is obviously some importance to generic discussions about diversity and inclusion – many people still need to hear why diversity is important and how it benefits a corporation’s culture, its ability to innovate, and its bottom line.

But it is also an easy way for companies to boast their commitment to diversity while limiting senior, talented women to talking only about diversity.

As a member of the media, I cannot responsibly discount the unique obstacles and experiences that women in STEM face (it is a part of the story), but in every case I’ve seen so far, women who succeed in these fields have a lot more to say. Stifling and limiting them in the name of diversity and inclusion is beyond ironic.

Women who talk about things that matter to them and are respected by their peers for the expertise, perspective and knowledge they bring with them

I sincerely hope that conversations with women in science become deeper this year – that event organisers, interviewers, and panel moderators trust and rely on them to talk about more than just the fact that they are women.

An engineer has many insights to share about her work on site, a researcher about her scientific endeavours, and a manager about her team’s achievements in addition to her lived experience as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

For example, at the virtual Oil & Gas Future Forum I hosted last year, three women and four men participated in two panel sessions. The questions obviously didn’t differ between our speakers based on their gender, but based on their expertise and experience.

I truly believe that the value of seeing nearly as many women as men in those panels, all operating on similar levels of expertise and engaging in discussions and debates about important industry topics, far outweighs the value of asking four women to talk about diversity.

Simply put: We can say that diversity is important, or we can demonstrate it.

Carla Sertin, editor-in-chief, Oil & Gas Middle East