Minority Women in the Oil and Gas Industry

Personal Introduction and Research Interests
My background is certainly not unique or even rare, at least for many South Africans. When I was born, apartheid was still the law of the land in South Africa and I was classified as "colored" (i.e., neither white nor black) and commonly referred to as "hotnots" (i.e., bastards). As a result, our family was forced to first live in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of Cape Town called Woodstock, or more commonly the "mixed slums." When Woodstock became overcrowded, our family was forcibly relocated to the desert-like Cape Flats, 25 miles further from Cape Town. Because these actions were sanctioned by the government and were therefore "legal," I simply accepted what was happening as a part of the natural course of things. Over time, however, these and other racially motivated incidents during this formative period in my life convinced me that the status quo was inherently wrong and evil, even if I was unable to articulate the precise reasons for my seemingly radical views at the time.

Indeed, I did not come to appreciate the full scope of apartheid until I heard the name "Nelson Mandela" and began learning about the antecedents of apartheid and how the legal practice was used by a white minority to exploit people of color who were actually the majority of the population in their own country, including most especially women who were even more adversely affected by these laws. Thereafter, I no longer held any delusions about the wrongness of apartheid or any semblance of legitimacy in a modern, democratic society. This background also fueled my interests in taking a long hard look at the world in which I lived and to determine how not having the right ethnicity or gender can limit personal and professional opportunities.

Following this epiphany, I traveled to Europe where I met my American husband and we visited the U.S. in 2004 and my husband, daughter and I ultimately relocated here in 2009. My "you-live-here-now" culture shock was so intense when I realized that even though the United States was (supposed to be) eons ahead of South Africa with its freedom and racial issues, the harsh realities were so much different. I quickly learned that "apartheid," "slavery," "segregation," or whatever we want to name it, even though no longer officially sanctioned in America, is still economically and socially very real.

Today, I am employed in the oil and gas sector as a minority female entrepreneur, still fighting, but this time for economic freedom. In sum, I believe that by adding my personal experiences under apartheid will help me pursue research that will raise awareness, inspire discussion and compel action against racism, discrimination, and the dangers of erecting gender, social, economic or racial barriers. Consequently, my current research interests include most especially the manner in which gender discrimination adversely affect minority women in general and African-American in particular in the workplace and their personal lives, most especially in the oil and gas industry. While additional research is needed, the studies to date clearly indicate that there are many occupational fields that remain male dominated (Key, Popkin, Munchus, Wech, Hill & Tanner, 2012) despite legislative efforts to eliminate gender-based recruitment and hiring practices (Fairchild, 2009; McKee, 2014).

In some cases, discrimination is institutionalized in the form of organizational cultures that place a high priority on male-oriented values, beliefs and behavior styles (Barrett, 2012). Such male-dominated organizational cultures operate to discourage career advancement by women, and even those who succeed in cracking the glass ceiling lack the same level of management support enjoyed by their male counterparts (Barrett, 2012). While a qualitative analysis in the form of face-to-face interviews or focus groups, for example, could provide valuable empirical observations concerning these issues, quantitative analysis would also useful for measuring the respective effects of male-oriented values, beliefs and behavior styles in the oil and gas industry, making a mixed methods researh strategy optimal for this purpose (Creswell, Shope, Clark & Green, 2006). In sum, it has become increasingly apparent that more women in general and minority women in particular are needed in the globalized oil and gas industry (Simard & Gammal, 2012), an outcome that represents the focus of my primary research interests today.

References

Barrett, R. (2012). Picturing a crude past: Primitivism, public art, and corporate oil promotion in the United States. Journal of American Studies, 46(2), 395-422. doi:http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1017/S0021875812000084.

Creswell, J. W., Shope, R., Plano Clark, V. L., & Green, D. O. (2006). How interpretive qualitative research extends mixed methods research. Research in the Schools, 13(1), 1-11.

Fairchild, G. (2009). Racial segregation in the public schools and adult labor market outcomes: the case of black Americans. Small Business Economics, 33(4), 467-484.

Key, S., Popkin, S., Munchus, G., Wech, B., Hill, V., & Tanner, J. (2012). An exploration of leadership experiences among white women and women of color. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(3), 392-404.

Miller, G. E. (January 01, 2004). Frontier Masculinity in the oil industry: The experience of women engineers. Gender, Work, and Organization (online), 47-73.

Simard, C. & Gammal, L. (2012). Solutions to recruit technical women. Anita Borg Institute Solutions Series, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.