Breaking the Gas Ceiling E-Book

Rebecca Ponton

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 503

Beschreibung

The international petroleum industry has long been known the world over as a "good old boys' club" and nowhere is the oil and gas industry's gender imbalance more apparent than offshore. The untold story, shared in these pages, is about the women who have been among the first to inhabit this world, and whose stories previously have been a missing part of the history of the industry.
"As a CEO, I believe it is imperative for today's generation of young women to realize there is a seat for them in the boards of oil & gas companies as the "gas ceiling" can be broken quicker and easier than before. Reading this book, they will think about these women who have gone before them and broken down those barriers in order to give them new opportunities."
-- Maria Moraeus Hanssen, CEO, DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG
"My belief is that diversity is key to both creativity and solid long-term business results. Even in a country like Norway, where professional gender diversity is greater than in any other country I have had interactions with, we have an underrepresentation of women in top management positions. I would therefore like to express my appreciation to Rebecca Ponton for keeping this important subject on the agenda by presenting to us positive, impressive and, at the same time, obtainable role models."
-- Grethe K. Moen, CEO and President, Petoro AS
"As the industry now is more complex and faces more uncertainty, women will be more important contributors, especially in management and communication. Women could be just what is needed!"
-- Karen Sund, Founder Sund Energy AS
"Everyone needs role models - and role models that look like you are even better. For women, the oil and gas industry has historically been pretty thin on role models for young women to look up to. Rebecca Ponton has provided an outstanding compilation of role models for all women who aspire to success in one of the most important industries of modern times."
-- Dave Payne, Chevron VP Drilling & Completions
From the World Voices Series at Modern History Press

Leseprobe

Breaking the Gas Ceiling:

Women in the Offshore♀il & Gas Industry

Rebecca Ponton

M o d e r n   H i s t o r y   P r e s s

Breaking the Gas Ceiling: Women in the Offshore Oil & Gas Industry

Copyright © 2019 by Rebecca Ponton. All Rights Reserved

Cover photo Amelia Behrens Furniss (circa 1920), courtesy Noel Furniss.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ponton, Rebecca, 1961- author.

Title: Breaking the gas ceiling : women in the offshore oil & gas industry / by Rebecca Ponton ; foreword by Marie-Jose Nadeau, C.M.

Description: 1st Edition. | Ann Arbor, MI : Modern History Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019012364 (print) | LCCN 2019015566 (ebook) | ISBN 9781615994458 (Kindle, ePub, pdf) | ISBN 9781615994434 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781615994441 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Women executives--United States--Biography. | Offshore oil industry--United States. | Offshore gas industry--United States.

Classification: LCC HD6054.4.U6 (ebook) | LCC HD6054.4.U6 P66 2019 (print) | DDC 622/.33819092520973--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012364

NOTE: All names, ages, positions, titles, and roles were current at the time in which the interviews were conducted. Also, every effort has been made to give attribution to supporting documentation, to strive for accuracy, and to fact check.

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In loving memory of my mother,

Lois Francisco Lester.

You were a pioneer in your own right and always my biggest champion. I aspire to be more like you.

And my youngest brother,

Kirk Vandervoort.

Your time with us was too short but you gave us the gift of your son,whom you loved “more than anything on God’s green earth.”

Contents

Foreword by Marie-José Nadeau, C.M.

Preface

Chapter 1: WOW – Women on Water: A Brief History of Women Offshore

Chapter 2: Margaret McMillan – Water Safety Pioneer

Chapter 3: Yassmin Abdel-Magied – Mechanical Engineer

Chapter 4: Sara Akbar – Co-founder & CEO Kuwait Energy

Chapter 5: Jerry Tardivo Alcoser – Petroleum Engineer

Chapter 6: Ann Cairns – President International Markets MasterCard Worldwide

Chapter 7: In Memoriam – Sarah Helen Darnley (1968 –2013)

Chapter 8: Myrtle Dawes – Chemical Engineer

Chapter 9: Anne Grete Ellingsen – CEO GCE NODE

Chapter 10: Arlete Fastudo – Sonagol’s First Female Marine Engineer

Chapter 11: Abigail Ross Hopper – Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2015 – 2017

Chapter 12: Eve Howell – First Woman Head of Australia’s North West Shelf

Chapter 13: Dr. Amy Jadesimi – Managing Director, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL)

Chapter 14: In Memoriam – Zara Ibrahim Khatib, PhD (1953 – 2014)

Chapter 15: Las Mujeres en las Plataformas de Pemex (The Women on the Platforms of Pemex)

Chapter 16 Mieko Mahi – Photographer/Videographer

Chapter 17: Deirdre Michie – First Female CEO Oil & Gas UK

Chapter 18: Scarlett Mummery – Geotechnical Engineer

Chapter 19: Jennifer DiGeso Norwood – First Female Offshore Installation Manager Maersk Drilling

Chapter 20: Sue Jane Taylor – Fine Artist & Visual Documenter

Chapter 21: Pat Thomson – Materials and Logistics Superintendent

Chapter 22: Nina Vorderwülbecke – Helicopter Pilot

Chapter 23 Marni Zabarsky – First Female Saturation Diver, Gulf of Mexico

Chapter 24: Alyssa Michalke – First female commander Texas A & M Corps of Cadets

Afterword

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

About the Author

Index

Foreword

“We could be concerned as much with sticky floors as we are with glass ceilings” Marie-José Nadeau (Alagos, 2015).

Recent history has been marked by women’s changing role in both society and the workplace. At work, male fiefdoms have been cracked open with educated and ambitious women now playing an increasingly active part across a range of professions. Today, we see women doctors, lawyers, journalists and entrepreneurs rising up the ladder of their respective careers.

Sadly, the energy sector, especially the oil and gas industry, has lagged behind other industries. Working conditions in this industry are not easy; workers often have to face extreme heat or biting cold while carrying out physically strenuous operations in remote locations. Traditionally, this was considered to be a male domain but increasingly women are choosing to accept the challenge and are now playing an active part in key activities such as exploring and producing hydrocarbons for an energy-hungry world. As the remarkable women profiled in this book testify, the oil industry is being transformed step-by-step, woman-by-woman as individual women make personal career choices that take them to new frontiers.

This change is being driven by women themselves and the choices they make. The way women perceive themselves and their role at work has changed irrevocably as they opt for education pathways in science, technology and management. However, as they embark on their careers they still face resistance at every stage. Individual attitudes of men towards women have clearly improved but many corporations still lag behind in terms of policies and attitudes. This needs to change.

A report by McKinsey & Company (2015) states that women are still underrepresented at every level in the corporate pipeline. The report points out that:

Many people assume this is because women are leaving companies at higher rates than men or due to difficulties balancing work and family. However, our analysis tells a more complex story: women face greater barriers to advancement and a steeper path to senior leadership.

There are hopeful signs of changing attitudes at the top of the corporate ladder. There is a widespread recognition that female leadership in organizations adds value and ensures optimum performance. Yet, as the McKinsey report points out

…based on the slow rate of progress over the last three years, it will take twenty-five years to reach gender parity at the senior-VP level and more than one hundred years in the C-suite. While CEO commitment to gender diversity is high, organizations need to make a significant and sustained investment to change company practices and culture so women can achieve their full potential.

The women profiled in this book are pioneers in their field. We need to break down barriers but above all we need to encourage more young women to follow their path. We cannot create leaders unless the pipeline is full. Not everyone has leadership potential and the pool needs to be larger if more women are to achieve a place in the C-suite. Fortunately, we are on the right track as this book so admirably shows.

Marie-José Nadeau, C.M.

Chair, World Energy Council (2013 – 2016)1

_____________________

1 Marie-José Nadeau was elected the first female chair in the 90-year history of the World Energy Council (WEC) in 2013. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada (C.M.) in December 2015. Source: World Energy Council

Preface

Shortly after becoming a petroleum landman2 in 2011, I remember attending my first oil and gas conference. As I looked around the cavernous exhibit hall, I realized I was one of very few women. While I was not intimidated nor did I feel like I had stumbled into a place I didn’t belong, it was still an odd realization. As I attended more conferences, exhibitions, and seminars, I continued to notice the same scenario. There were few women in attendance and even fewer female speakers and presenters. Where are all the women, I wondered?

Having been a journalist for 20 years before I became a petroleum landman, my curiosity was piqued. I started researching women’s involvement in the oil and gas industry and was mystified by the lack of information. This was even more surprising to me because it was a female friend who had gotten me started as a landman and, in all my trips to various courthouses around central and south Texas, I had observed a fairly even split between male and female landmen. (Equally as interesting, as it was a career I started at midlife, was the fact that many women were of a “certain age,” as we like to say euphemistically.) I quickly discovered that parity definitely was not the norm throughout the industry.

When I read a 2011 interview with the male CEO of an exploration and production company, in which he was quoted as saying, “I don’t think I can name a CEO of an oil and gas company that is a woman,” (Stonington, 2011), I was astounded! The more research I did, the more I came to think of these women as “invisible,” even within the industry itself. Certainly they exist, but few people seem to know who they are.

This book is not about male-bashing (us vs. them) nor is it meant to be exclusionary – almost without exception, the women interviewed mentioned having a male mentor – but the numbers don’t lie. Women make up nearly 47% of the workforce in America (and similar percentages in many other countries),3 but according to a report by IHS Global, Inc. (2016) for the American Petroleum Institute (API), they comprise only 17% of the total employment in the combined oil and gas and petrochemical industries. The Petroleum Equipment & Services Association (PESA) Gender Diversity Study (Accenture, 2018) puts the figures at 15% of entry-level hires and 18% of experienced hires. Based on public awareness and exposure, you would think it is even less. It is important to hear more of these women’s voices, see them quoted and interviewed in the media more frequently, and feature them at industry events, where often there is not a single woman among the guest speakers. Currently, there is a campaign to encourage diversity on speaking panels by eliminating “manels” (all-male panels).

Originally, when I began writing this book, I envisioned it as a broad overview of women’s contributions to the industry. However, once I started interviewing women for the offshore chapter, it took on a life of its own and I realized it deserved to be a separate book, profiling some of the elite group of women who comprise a mere 3.6% of the offshore workforce (Oil & Gas UK, 2017). Pat Thomson, who worked as a materials and logistics supervisor until she was 72 – and dreams of returning offshore at nearly 74 – was the first woman I interviewed and it was her incredible story that was the inspiration for this book.

Not only is there a need to encourage more women to join the energy industry as a whole, there is just as great a need to create awareness of the women who have led and are continuing to lead the way. I am in awe of the women featured within these pages – many of whom have achieved firsts in their fields – and am so appreciative that they have entrusted me with their stories. I hope I have done them justice and that readers will be as inspired by them as I have been. While this book is not a comprehensive or exhaustive look at women in the offshore oil and gas industry, hopefully, it will be a step toward documenting their contributions to the genealogy of our industry.

It was difficult to decide how to arrange the interviews, as there is some chronological overlap in many of the stories. It also is not possible to present them according to region, as the oil and gas sector is a worldwide industry, and many women work outside their home countries in a variety of locations over the course of their careers, becoming world travelers in the process. And so we begin with Margaret McMillan, who, at 95, is the matriarch of the book, and the creator of many of the water safety programs, which all offshore personnel are required to pass prior to going offshore, and which have greatly improved the personal safety of the intrepid women – and men – who work offshore. I want to close with Ocean Engineering major (Class of ‘17) Alyssa Michalke’s interview because I believe she is representative of the face and voice of the new generation of the female offshore workforce.

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC; 2015) released a survey in which 57% of female millennials polled stated they would avoid working in a business sector that had a negative image, including the oil and gas industry, further underscoring the need to emphasize that women have been involved in this industry from the very beginning. We are not new to the industry. Women have been involved in the industry just as long as men have (although not in as great numbers). We are a minority but, until there is greater parity, we can be a vocal minority and we can be a visible minority.

It has been said, if we forget the past, we are destined to repeat our mistakes. I think it is equally important to remember the past so we can emulate our successes. I believe if girls – and women – are aware that they have had a history in the oil and gas industry, it will enable them to envision a future in it as well.

– Rebecca Ponton

February 2019

_____________________

2 In its simplest definition, “landman” refers to a man or woman who runs title to determine mineral ownership in a property.

3 Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017)

in·trep·id

inˈtrepəd/

adjective

adjective: intrepid

fearless; adventurous (often used for rhetorical or humorous effect).

“our intrepid reporter”

synonyms: fearless, unafraid, undaunted, unflinching, unshrinking, bold, daring, gallant, audacious, adventurous, heroic, dynamic, spirited, indomitable; Morebrave, courageous, valiant, valorous, stouthearted, stalwart, plucky, doughty;

informal gutsy, gutty, spunky, ballsy “our intrepid leader inspired us to forge ahead”

antonyms: timid

Origin: late 17th century: from French intrépide or Latin intrepidus, from in- ‘not’ + trepidus ‘alarmed.’

Source: Google

1

WOW – Women On Water:A Brief History of Women Offshore

The first woman ever to work offshore in the history of the petroleum industry is… a mystery.

“Offshore” being a relative term, Azerbaijan staked claim to the first offshore oil discovery in 1803 with the extraction of oil from two hand-dug wells 18 and 30 meters from shore in Bibi-Heybat Bay (Zonn, et al., 2010), so perhaps it could have been an Azerbaijani woman.

Although it would be almost 150 years later, an Azerbaijani woman did indeed make her mark on the industry. Maral Rahmanzadeh, already a respected artist, rose to greater prominence in the 1950s for her renderings of life offshore on Azerbaijan’s famous Neft Dashlari (Oil Rocks) (Aliyev, 2011). Maral is said to have removed the traditional Muslim veil and donned a jumpsuit in order to work among the oilmen, capturing scenes of their daily lives (Nazarli, 2015). Perhaps not thought of as traditional “offshore work,” art plays a vital role in documenting life offshore and is carried on by contemporary artists like Scotswoman Sue Jane Taylor profiled in this book.

While women have achieved many firsts in the field – and continue to do so – it is impossible to say with any degree of certainty who the very first woman was to work offshore. Because it is a worldwide industry, each country with a petroleum-centric economy would have had a woman who was the first to be involved in the industry whether she actually went offshore or remained onshore where she participated in some facet of the offshore industry.

Just as women were involved in the onshore industry from its inception in the mid-19th century when oil was first discovered in North America in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada, in 1858 and in the United States the following year with the Edmund Drake well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, we have to assume women were involved offshore, in some capacity, from the beginning.

American anthropologist Diane E. Austin, PhD, confirms this when she writes, “Long before the 1970s when oil and gas companies were forced by [US] federal civil rights laws and guidelines established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to begin hiring women in offshore jobs, women were intimately involved with the industry” (2006, p. 173).

Despite that fact, not much was written about women working offshore in the US until the 1970s. Newspaper archives offer a fascinating glimpse into how the arrival (often referred to as the “invasion”) of women affected the previously all-male bastion of offshore oil and gas.

A brief article appeared in some US newspapers in September 1973, stating five women became the “first of their sex” to work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) when they were hired through a catering company to “take over cooking and cleaning jobs” on a drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana (no byline; 1973).4 The article specified the women would work a week on/week off rotation schedule. There was no mention of the women’s names nor were there any photos of the women to accompany the text – a strange phenomenon that still happens today.

A December 1975 New York Times’ article profiled four women working on a rig in the GoM, but focused mainly on 20-year old roustabout Cindy Myer, nicknamed “Ralph” by her male co-workers, since she “work[s] like a man.” Calling her “something of a pioneer,” the article says female roustabouts offshore are “rare and controversial. And most of the controversy about them is back on land” (Sterba, 1975).

As Dorothy Mitchell the night cook on the rig pointed out, the opposition didn’t always come from men, sometimes it was from their wives, as this March 7, 1977, letter in the iconic Dear Abby (“agony aunt”) American advice column illustrates on the following page.

In 1977, former pro golfer Kristin Lovelace made news when she became the first woman operator on an offshore platform off the coast of California for Chevron. Surprisingly, in this instance, instead of an article, most newspapers ran one or two captioned photos of Kristin, saying she “works a regular shift along with men,” (no byline, 1977), stating the obvious, but something that was an anomaly at the time.

Newspapers followed her career and two years later in June 1979, the Los Angeles Times included her in an article about Chevron’s platforms off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, just miles from where the first offshore rigs in the US were erected in the 1890s (Japenga, 1979). This time, although the writer mentions she was “the only woman on the West Coast employed as a platform operator,” the focus is more on Kristin’s technical and mechanical abilities than the fact that she is a woman and, in the photo caption, she is referred to as a “troubleshooting mechanical wizard.” However, platform operator Don Finch reveals that, “A lot of guys got real upset,” when Kristin first arrived offshore but says, except for a few diehards, they became convinced she was “obviously mechanically inclined” and capable of doing the same work they were.

It is common knowledge that in the early days (and the not-so-distant past) getting hired often was based on whom you knew. It may have helped that, according to the article, Kristin had been recruited by family friend, Chevron area supervisor Bill Ryherd, who at that point had been with the company nearly 30 years. Surely, some of his friends had sons he could have hired; apparently, he saw the potential in Kristin and was willing to go against convention.

“Women joining the ranks of offshore drilling” is the headline of an American newspaper article dated July 12, 1978, and sent over the wire by the Associated Press (AP) (no byline, 1978), which revealed, “A brief, unscientific survey of five platforms showed older men were concerned about the possibility of sexual encounters and the need to watch their language. Younger men spoke more about the competition.”

Robert Moore, Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen, in 1984 reported for TheGuardian newspaper in London on an EOC-funded5 study of recent female geology graduates seeking employment both onshore and off, and came to the blunt conclusion, “Exclusion from jobs by men is the problem” (1984).

Interestingly, things can work both ways and the workplace culture, whether offshore or on, is certainly influenced by the “top down” attitude. Even in the early days, occasionally there was a woman in charge. In an article from 1982, Sue Trolinger, then district manager of operations for Sun Exploration and Production’s northern district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose job entailed working offshore, is quoted as saying, “I don’t treat the men any differently on a rig than I do in the office” (Canetti, 1982).

Particularly in the early days, as Professor Moore’s study found, and even more recently, the lack of accommodations has long been used as a reason why there aren’t more women working offshore. Surely an industry capable of extracting hydrocarbons from beneath the ocean can figure out a way to accommodate all of the members of its workforce, regardless of sex. The writer of one article relayed a simple solution offered by a group of women working offshore in the GoM in 1978: “To the argument that a bed goes empty with a lone female on board, the ladies reply – put on another woman” (no byline, 1978).

Sometimes, it only takes a little ingenuity – and a sense of humor – to solve the problem. Norwegian Anne Grete Ellingsen, the first female offshore platform manager (OIM) in the North Sea, recalls complaining about the open shower stalls when she was offshore in the early ‘80s. On her next rota,6 as she walked toward the long row of showers, to her delight, she discovered one stall had been painted pink and covered with a pink shower curtain. “No man was going anywhere near that one!” she says, laughing at the memory. In fact, no man went anywhere near the shower area when she did. “I had it all to myself,” she recounts gleefully.

Ann Cairns, now president of international markets for MasterCard Worldwide, and the first female engineer certified to work offshore on UK rigs in the ‘80s (Groden, 2015), is not alone in recalling having to sit with her feet against a bathroom door to ensure privacy. “There were no women’s loos and no locks on the doors either” (no byline, 2013).

In a 2010 Fast Company article, chemical engineer Cynthia “C.J.” Warner, now president & CEO of Renewable Energy Group, Inc., gave a vivid description of what passed for privacy offshore in the ‘80s, given the lack of women’s accommodations, when she talked about being the only woman on a rig with 300 men and one bathroom – without a door. “You put the hard hat over your lap,” she says with a grin (Kamenetz, 2010).

Women in countries like the US, the UK, Norway, and Australia now have a 40-plus year history in the offshore industry but, for women in other countries, the opportunities are only beginning to be within reach.

While the Middle East is synonymous with oil and gas, not all countries in the region have the same abundance of fossil fuels or the ability to exploit them. The offshore petroleum industry in areas like the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus), as well as others, is still in the frontier stages. As time goes on, the oil and gas industries of those countries certainly will see their own female pioneers.

Fresh discoveries are being made even in long-exploited areas such as the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. The French company Total, partnering with Chevron, announced its biggest find to date in January of 2018 in the GoM off the coast of Louisiana. Almost simultaneously, Royal Dutch Shell announced one of its largest finds in deepwater GoM about 200 miles from Houston, Texas. Within a 24-hour period, British Petroleum (BP) announced two new discoveries in the North Sea.

Despite what Gavin Bridge and Philippe Le Billon refer to in their book Oil as the “profoundly gendered nature of oil work” (2012), every new discovery – whether onshore or off – should be viewed as an opportunity for women to become more involved in the industry.

Although this book is not an in-depth exploration of the history of women offshore, instead focusing on individual women’s accomplishments, particularly those who have achieved firsts in their fields, the importance of preserving this piece of history cannot be overstated.

As mechanical engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied puts it so succinctly in her memoir, Yassmin’s Story, “It can be disenfranchising to not be able to connect with your history” (2016). While she was talking about ancestry and heritage, her comment applies to history in a broader, more general sense and certainly to women in the petroleum industry. And, as the eminently quotable Yassmin wrote in a 2017 article for Teen Vogue online, “History matters, because it informs the attitudes of the present society” (2017).

To see the history of women in the industry portrayed in photos, scroll through the company history on the website of an oil and gas company and watch as the black and white photos from the early 1900s of men on rigs and in boardrooms progress to color photos around the 1960s and ‘70s of men on rigs and in boardrooms. More current photos that include women are often stock photos. To portray a more accurate picture (so to speak) of the history of women’s involvement in the industry, company historians and archivists need to search for photos of female employees – they exist! No doubt there are women around the world who would be willing to share photos from their days offshore (and on).

While each of the women’s stories in this book is unique, there are common threads that run through many of them – the love of a challenge and the willingness to rise to the occasion. Overcoming fears, whether they were specific to offshore, such as a fear of water or of flying or fear of the unknown – the uncharted territory they were entering. Determination in the face of obstacles. Resilience despite repeatedly being told no, encountering naysayers or being subjected to negative remarks. These are characteristics that seem to be innate to the women who have chosen to work offshore.

Paula Harris, global director corporate social responsibility programming at Schlumberger, went offshore in 1987 shortly after graduating from Texas A & M with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) petroleum engineering, and says in the seven years she worked offshore, “99.9% of the time, I was the not only the only female, but I was always the only person of color. Here I am, close to 30 years later, and I still run into people that remember me because I was always the odd man out. [It was] very different to find an African-American female offshore.”

And when she did meet resistance, it helped to have a snappy comeback.

“Sometimes you get adversarial [comments], ‘I don’t want a woman out here!’

“And I used to love to say, ‘Listen, you got the best. But if you want to send me back, it may be weeks before you get another engineer!’” (Career Girls, 2012).

So many of the women interviewed said they fell into their careers by accident or chance or serendipity, but they didn’t just get lucky. It was – and is – their brave spirits and inquisitive minds that allowed them to succeed in uncharted territory and, in a twist on a pop culture reference, “To boldly go where no woman ha[d] gone before.”

If there is anyone that embodies that spirit, it is an American woman named Amelia Behrens Furniss, who undoubtedly must have been one of the first women to work offshore and whose photo graces the cover of this book, thanks to the generosity of her grandson, Noel Mark Furniss, Retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, Air Force Central Command, who is the keeper of his paternal grandmother’s photo albums and other memorabilia.

Amelia Florence Behrens was born July 6, 1895, just one year before the discovery of Summerland oilfield in Santa Barbara County, California, the site of the first offshore discovery in the US from wells drilled from piers that extended out to sea.7 Her father, Captain Henry Behrens of Denmark, ran a commercial diving business before the turn of the 19th century and a diving bell exhibition on the Venice Pier in California, and taught both Amelia and her sister, Dorothy, to dive.

To say Amelia Florence Behrens Musser Furniss led a colorful life would be an understatement. In the Roaring Twenties and the era of the flappers, she was unpredictable, unconventional – and, yes, unflappable – seemingly up for any type of adventure. “The diving girl,” as she was often called, first made it into the newspapers in March 1913 when her marriage at the age of 17 was listed in the Los Angeles Times.

In an October 1921 newspaper article, you can fairly hear the annoyance in the (presumably male) reporter’s voice when he types, “If it isn’t one thing, it’s another with Florence Amelia Behrens Musser, woman diver. Florence Amelia manages to get on the front page of newspapers every few months” (no byline, 1921). He goes on to refer to her latest “exploit” – a dangerous descent into a 162-foot oil well through 24-inch casing to retrieve some tools – as if it were a media stunt. Amelia had been asked – or volunteered, depending on the account – to attempt to retrieve the expensive tools when Captain’s Behrens’ size prevented him from going into the pipe.

A faded tea-colored clipping in Amelia’s scrapbook from the Venice Vanguard Evening Standard takes a different tone, with the front-page announcement of the triumph of the local “deep sea diver [who] has won a new record, unparalleled in the history of diving and underwater exploits” (no byline, 1921).

Months later, newspapers across the country were still running the story with the dramatic headline, “Sea Diver Fights For Life in Oil Well,” but none ran Amelia’s photo.

She made five dives over a period of three hours, in water 45 feet deep, setting an endurance record, but became wedged in the pipe on the final dive. By staying calm and keeping her wits about her, she finally was able to free herself. While the danger was real, a reporter for the Oxnard Daily Courier, writing in the sensational tone of the day, claims, “…she wondered whether she would ever come out alive” (no byline, 1921).

The story was given a small mention in the Comment section of Petroleum Age. Referring to her as “Miss Behrens” (although she was married) and the “daughter of Captain Henry Behrens, sea diver” the piece opens with the line, “Believe it or not…” and ends by saying, “We say this story takes the cake” (no byline, 1921). Was the incredulous tone because of the feat itself or because she was a woman or possibly both?

Despite extensive press coverage, it seems there were those who had their doubts that a woman had accomplished such a coup. The Rig and Reel magazine ran a photo of Amelia formally dressed in a coat and hat wearing dark lipstick next to the caption “Somebody said it couldn’t be done – and so Miss Amelia Behrens did it” (no byline, 1922). It went on to say, “And others hinted that it wasn’t done, so we asked Captain Behrens to verify it – which he has done to our complete satisfaction.” The magazine printed Captain Behrens’ letter dated December 7, [year not given], in which he also wrote, “Amelia... is... perfectly fearless and has complete confidence in herself in whatever she does.” And with that stamp of authenticity, it went on to show the photo of Amelia, which Captain Behrens verified was taken that day, her slight, 5’1”, 118-pound frame encased in the 446-pound wet suit, along with an article detailing her record-breaking dive, retrieval of the tools, and timely escape.

As if hard hat diving weren’t enough, Amelia also performed wing-walking and stunt work in silent films, such as the classic Perils of Pauline (1914). Noel recalls how Grandma Mimi would answer his “inquisi-tions” and when he asked her about the hard hat diving and wing walking, she told him she had to do those things because the men couldn’t (Furniss, 2016).

Her intrepid, adventuresome spirit is embodied in the women who work offshore, and in 2012 the Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF), an international non-profit professional honor society, recognized her achievements with her posthumous induction as a Pioneer Hard Hat Diver. Her legacy lives on through the Amelia Behrens Furniss scholarship set up by Noel through WDHOF to encourage young women to enter the diving profession. One young woman she has inspired is her great-granddaughter, Lindsey Noel Furniss, Noel’s daughter, who is studying marine biology.

More recently, the 2016 movie Deepwater Horizon, based on the April 20, 2010, tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, reminded the public that not only do women work offshore, they often fulfill critical roles. While the accuracy of some of the events depicted in the film has been debated, the movie gave the distinct impression that there was only one woman aboard the rig that night. That is often the case in real life, as many women in this book attest; however, the Transocean Personnel On Board (POB) list reveals there were actually five women on the Deepwater Horizon rig:

Oleander Benton, catering/baker

Andrea Anasette Fleytas, dynamic positioning officer II

Virginia Stevens, catering/laundry

Paula Walker, catering/laundry – days

Cathleenia M. Willis, mudlogger

There are a number of influential women whose stories aren’t told in the limited amount of space available here, which would suggest that an encyclopedia of pioneering women in the offshore oil and gas industry needs to be compiled.

Dr. Marjorie Apthorpe

An Internet search of micropalaeontologist Marjorie Apthorpe’s name will leave no doubt that she was one of the first Australian women to work offshore. Some articles assert that she was one of the first two (along with fellow Aussie reservoir geologist Judy Garstone) and specify that they went offshore in 1981. That story has been written and repeated so many times that it has become part of oil and gas lore. Marjorie herself had taken it as fact until she recently began going through some memorabilia of her mother’s, as well as old papers and a photo album of her own from the 1960s, and recalled she had, in fact, first gone offshore in 1967 – fourteen years earlier than commonly reported!

“There were two trips to a Shell Development Australia rig (the SEDCO 135E) in the Otway Basin, Victoria. My feelings were of excitement, curiosity, a bit nervous riding in a helicopter for the first time.” She also was disappointed not to be able to work offshore, but instead was given a tour of the rig, where she observed the work environment, and was shown equipment such as sidewall core guns and logging tools. On the second trip she wrote a sidewall core logging program. “I was only four years out of university and had not been exposed to much of the hardware and equipment side of exploration before, so it was definitely informative.”

In December 1968, a year after Marjorie’s first venture offshore, the Melbourne Sun newspaper ran a feature about her trip. She is still indignant when she recalls the headline: Woman in a Man’s World: The Oil-Hunt Girl (Shand, 1968). The article, written by a female reporter, begins, “Meet Miss Marjorie Apthorpe, one of the few, if not the only woman in the world who has worked on an offshore drilling rig,” and goes on to detail the complexities of Marjorie’s work. While perhaps it wasn’t necessary to conclude with “...she enjoys giving or going to informal parties and barbecues,” it was a sign of the times. The rest of the article offers fascinating insight into the work of a micropalaeontologist (noting Marjorie was one of about 25 in all of Australia at the time) and is exactly the type of real-world success stories needed to illustrate the vast array of careers available to women in the industry.

Despite continuing her work in the oil and gas sector, it would be another 14 years before Marjorie went offshore again. She left Shell in 1973 to join Burmah Oil Company of Australia (BOCAL) as the micropalaeontologist in Perth in the Woodside–Burmah joint venture. Burmah Oil sold its shareholding in 1976, and the operating company of the joint venture was rebranded a couple of times, and ultimately known as Woodside.8

According to Marjorie, “Both Burmah and subsequently Woodside had strict “no women offshore” policies. This was a source of extreme frustration for several women geologists on staff, who felt they could not achieve any sort of career path without that essential offshore experience.” Marjorie and the other women approached the state government anti-discrimination commissioner only to discover that there wasn’t any legislation that covered their situation.

The policy remained in effect until March 1981 when Marjorie says a crisis in an offshore well (in this case, not hitting the reservoir target at the predicted depth) required the company to send someone offshore who could tell from ditch cuttings where they were geologically and whether to continue drilling or abandon the well.

“That’s why I, being the only company micropalaeontologist, was sent offshore. Judy Garstone, being a reservoir geologist, and the specialist geologist to work on cores if and when the well hit the reservoir, was sent with me on the basis that there was safety in numbers.

“Management were not happy at the time. I recall hearing about arguments between senior staff. By October 1981, things seemed to settle down because I was sent out to a rig for two weeks on my own. Presumably we had proved our worth,” she says wryly. “However, during the second trip, I recall hearing that the rig boat captain was blaming me for the bad weather! Superstition dies hard” (Apthorpe, 2018).

Margareth Øvrum

In 1982, one year out of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), as a graduate civil engineer specializing in technical physics, Margareth Øvrum was hired by Statoil (now Equinor) and has remained with the company ever since, rising to her current position of executive vice president. At 32, she became the company’s first female platform manager on the Gullfaks A, which at the time was the world’s largest offshore installlation. Not only did she often find herself the only female in a role, she was usually the youngest but, because of her skills and training – particularly her “time on the [rig] floor” – she had confidence in her abilities. Having broken that barrier, she saw “seven [or] eight female platform managers employed in a short space of time.” As she has risen through the ranks of leadership, she has achieved her goal of seeing 40% of her senior management team comprised of women, but stresses that other factors, aside from gender alone, should be considered in the recruitment process (no byline, 2011).

Moira Ming Ying Li

A chemical engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, Moira Ming Ying Li joined Maersk Drilling in 2007. Maersk Drilling is a subsidiary of A.P. Møller – Maersk Group, the world’s largest container shipping company.

In August 2014, she became Maersk’s first female unit director and assumed her role on the Deliverer rig working for Chevron offshore Angola.

Maersk affiliates have seen a number of women hold C-suite positions: Gretchen Watkins was Maersk Oil’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2014 and would be named its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2016 before going on to become Shell Oil’s first female CEO in 2018. From 2015 to 2017, Ana Zambelli, who has a master’s degree in petroleum engineering, held the position of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Maersk Drilling. In yet another first, Carolina Dybeck Happe was appointed the first female Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in A.P. Moller – Maersk Group’s 114-year history, effective January 2019.

Penny Chan Wei Chze

After graduating from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering, first class honors, and within four years of joining Petroliam Nasional Berhad (known as Petronas), Malaysia’s government-owned oil company, 26-year old Penny Chan Wei Chze became its first woman deputy drilling supervisor. In a common scenario, she has found herself to be the only woman working among 150 men offshore and says, “To be effective on a male-dominated rig, I always put the gender aside, and only focus on professional strength” (Cheang, 2015).

Harshini Kanhekar

Having already earned a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and studying for an MBA, Harshini Kanhekar became the first woman to attend the National Fire Service College in Nagpur, India, in its 46-year history. Incredibly, a country that in 1966 named Indira Gandhi its first (and, to date, only) female prime minister had never had a woman firefighter until Harshini’s graduation. After joining the Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) in 2006, she eventually gained access to offshore rigs. “I am very thankful to my management who encouraged and believed that a woman could handle offshore drilling services. Until my posting, no woman was given the chance to serve [on] offshore rigs” (Aranha, 2017). She says, “Women today are doing the unthinkable.” Making a point that it is societal mores and attitudes that need to catch up with women and not the other way around, she adds, “It doesn’t imply that we couldn’t do it ten years ago” (Nayak, 2016).

Griselda Cuevas

Griselda Cuevas of Mexico, who holds a master’s degree in engineering and is fluent in four languages, worked offshore Angola for Schlumberger in 2008 and was, at that time, the only female engineer assigned to deepwater operations. After nearly two years offshore, she left the petroleum industry and became involved with tech start-ups, a prime example of how skills gained in the oil and gas sector are transferable to other industries, and has been employed with Google since 2014 (Cuevas, 2012).

Dena Hegab

Following in the footsteps of her father, a drilling engineer, Dena Hegab of Egypt earned her Bachelor of Science, Petroleum & Energy Engineering at the American University of Cairo. Within five years of graduating, she found herself among the first women to drill in the Mediterranean and the lone woman on a rig with 179 men. It is her belief that women don’t join the industry, not because of the challenges – which she relishes – but because of the lack of female role models, which is one of the reasons she is willing to put herself in the public eye (Hegab, 2017).

Anne-Christine Dreue

Anne-Christine Dreue, Vice President Business Development EMEA/Fokker Aerostructures B.V. – the aerospace and defense Industries also being male domains – speaks five languages, holds a commercial pilot’s license, and earned her Master of Science (MSc) in Mining / Petroleum Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In 1981, she became one of the first female drilling assistants in the North Sea for Elf International/Elf Norway, calling it, “A very special time for the offshore industry and the position of women in this male-dominated world” (Dreue, 2016).

Melissa Clare

Entering Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 1994, Melissa Clare had not yet decided her career path. “I chose to do engineering as it would leave lots of doors open, lots of different applications, and different industries to go into. Living in the oil capital of Europe, I took the opportunity to study mechanical and offshore engineering, in case I wanted to pursue opportunities in the oil and gas industry. Initially there were three females on my university course but, within a few months, I was the only one remaining.”

She joined GlobalSantaFe’s well engineering development program in 1998 as one of six trainees (four men and two women), spending her first five years offshore. In 2005, at the age of 30, Melissa was promoted to rig manager, making her the first female rig manager in the UK and one of the few in the industry.

Eighteen years after first setting foot offshore as a roustabout and having a successful career with major drilling contractor, Transocean, Melissa felt it was time to leverage her skill set and boldly made the decision to work as a consultant. “I established Petromac (based on my initials) and was quickly invited to support the executive team of start-up company, Borr Drilling, during its rapid growth phase.” Having held residential management positions in Canada, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Malaysia, she was well-equipped to provide strategic, commercial, and technical advice. “While it was both fun and rewarding, my longer-term plan was to move to the operator side of the business. I achieved that objective recently, joining Hurricane Energy, where I now lead the Aberdeen office as general manager.”

Having joined Lean In Energy9 as a mentor, Melissa is passionate about supporting women in traditionally male-dominated work places. “It’s come full circle, from having been mentored to now mentoring.”

She calls the effort to bring more women into the industry, “A movement, a mission, and a journey,” and has a philosophical view toward achieving a more gender-balanced workforce. “The situation won’t change overnight, but every effort contributes towards swinging the pendulum. I’m definitely a champion for equality and I think we’re advancing all the time. But I think that we will only have succeeded when we don’t differentiate and we no longer hear statements such as, ‘She’s the first,’ or ‘She’s an ambassador for women’” (Clare, 2019).

Vicki Hollub

Founded in 1920, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (“Oxy”) would not appoint its first female CEO until 2016 when Vicki Hollub, a mineral engineer and 34-year veteran of the company, took the helm. When asked about her history-making achievement, she defers to other women. “There were the first women to go out and work on platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the first women decades ago to go out and work in the rough, scary North Sea. Those were true trailblazers” (Blum, 2018).

As of this writing, there are several prominent women that reached the upper echelons of the industry and made a lasting impact, but currently are embroiled in controversy. It is unfortunate that these allegations, should they prove to be true, will tarnish not only their reputations, but their contributions to the industry. Among them, they achieved many firsts.

Nigeria’s first female Minister of Petroleum Resources (2010 – 2015), Diezani Alison-Madueke, received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Howard University in the US (Akinbajo, 2015) and an MBA from the University of Cambridge in the UK. A Shell employee earlier in her career, she became the first female president of OPEC upon her election in November 2014 (effective January 1, 2015).

Karen Agustiawan, a physics engineer whose career included many years with Mobil Oil, was named president and CEO of Pertamina, Indonesia’s national oil company in 2009, becoming the first woman to be appointed director of a state-owned company in that country. In 2014, Fortune magazine named her among its top 50 most powerful women. That same year, she resigned in order to spend more time with her family and to accept an offer to lecture at Harvard University.

Maria das Gracas Silva Foster, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, a Master in Nuclear Engineering, and an MBA, interned at Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, in 1978. Thirty-four years later, she would become not only the first female CEO of Petrobras, but the first woman in the world to head a major oil and gas company, making Time magazine’s list of 100 “icons who are defining the world in 2012.” Once known as “The Iron Lady of Oil,” she stepped down in 2015. The following year, it was reported that she is studying for a law degree, which she is due to complete in 2020 (Viegas, 2016).

At the same time, there are women who are breaking the gas ceiling and opening doors for other women to enter the industry every day. They are pioneers who have changed the course of history in this industry. Here, in their own words, as told to the author, are their stories.

_____________________

4 While bylined articles first began appearing in US newspapers in the 1920s, they didn’t become more commonly used until the ’70s and often not even then. By the ’80s, articles almost always carried a byline. (The author has noted the writer’s byline whenever one is provided.)

5 The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) was established under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. In 2007, it merged with several other agencies to form the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Source: EOC

6 Shorthand for “rotation schedule.”

7 Source: County of Santa Barbara Planning & Development Energy Division: Summerland Oil & Gas Production

8 Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company. Source: Woodside

9 An independent, non-profit organization affiliated with LeanIn.org. Source: Lean In Energy

2

Margaret McMillan Water Safety Pioneer

It was an era “when a woman working her wayinto a man’s field was just unbelievable.”

In all likelihood, the offshore safety and survival training courses that the women in this book, and the thousands of other men and women working offshore, have taken (and continue to take to keep their certifications current), were created – or at least influenced – by American water safety pioneer Margaret Mary McMillan.

Born August 9, 1920, in the small town of Gramercy, Louisiana, in the American South, Margaret was a water baby, learning to swim at the age of two or three. She told a reporter with the local Daily Advertiser newspaper in 2006, “I don’t ever remember being afraid of water in my life. It was fun and games” (Guidry, 2016). The rest of her life would revolve around what she referred to as “aquatics.” She joined a swim team at the age of eight and later became a competitive swimmer.

Although she never tried out for the Olympics – one of the ultimate goals for a competitive athlete – Margaret eventually would receive an Olympic gold medal at the age of 85. One of her swim students, Dave McAllister, who had been turned away by a number of facilities because he has Down syndrome, had gone on to compete in swimming in the international Special Olympics in 1983 and again in 1991. His mother, Glenda, says, “She was a remarkable woman and she gave him that life skill” (2015). At a celebration of Margaret’s career in 2006, in a show of appreciation for her influence in his life, Dave presented “Miss Mac” with one of the gold medals he had earned at a state Special Olympics swim meet.

Tall with strong features – dark, heavy eyebrows reminiscent of American film star Joan Crawford – and a regal bearing, Margaret McMillan was known to strike fear in the heart of many a man, but during her 75-year career as a swimming teacher and water safety instructor, her own heart held a special place for children.

“Margaret, a magnificent mentor of mine, and I were very close,” says longtime friend, Bonnie Maillet, CEO of Boysenblue/Celtec, Inc., an oilfield products company in Lafayette, Louisiana, as she recounts another story that illustrates Margaret’s devotion to her students. Margaret had shown up to attend Bonnie’s 50th birthday party being held at a local restaurant, but had to leave early to teach her swim classes. Bonnie noticed Margaret’s “perfectly manicured nails” were painted bright red with dots and clowns on each nail (long before such embellishments were fashionable). Wiggling her fingers, she explained to Bonnie that her nails were intended to distract the children who were afraid of water (2015).

A 1940 graduate of Southwestern Louisiana Institute (later, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette),10 Margaret earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in health, physical education, and psychology from the University of Texas. She did post-graduate work at both the University of Southern California and the American University in Washington, D.C. (no byline, 1977).

While Margaret has been a source of inspiration to many, the American Red Cross played an influential role in her life. From an early age, she participated in its training programs, and later used her certifications to become an instructor and trainer. She showed her allegiance to the organization by joining the Red Cross during World War II. In conversations with his aunt in her later years, her nephew, Wikoff McMillan, was able to glean some interesting details about that time in her life. “She was stationed down in Miami, probably around 1945 or ’46. Her job was to greet the boys coming back from war. She and a few other girls were the first women the soldiers saw in a long time. She had many proposals for marriage but turned all of them down!” (2015).

In 1951, a year after the start of the Korean War, Margaret took a leave of absence from her position as assistant professor of health and physical education at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) after being appointed a general field representative for the organization (no byline, 1951).

A year later, she returned to USL, where she would continue her career, immersed not just in swimming, but all things related to collegiate athletics and numerous other campus activities. During her student days at SLI, she was vice-president of the Red Jackets service organization, which organized and directed half-time shows at basketball and football games, and would later serve as the Red Jackets’ faculty advisor. With the inclusion of her own school years, she would devote over 40 years of her life to her alma mater.

Her retirement from USL was announced in December 1977 and just a few days later, Mayor Kenny Bowen proclaimed December 6, 1977, “Margaret McMillan Day” in Lafayette, and a celebration was held in her honor to show the city’s appreciation for her contributions.

It would be almost impossible to overstate Margaret’s standing in Lafayette, whether people knew her from her days as a swimming instructor or as an international water safety expert. Dave Domingue, operations coordinator at Lafayette International Center,11 says, “Margaret was quite an amazing woman, and I – like so many others – knew her from my childhood swimming lessons in the early ‘60s. She loved aquatics and wanted to share that with everybody. She was always very dear to me. She made an obvious and lasting impact on an industry that is integral to our local economy, and I’m pleased that her accomplishments will be given additional acknowledgment. This woman touched everybody in Lafayette at the time” (2018).

Three days later, the celebratory mood ended with the news of an offshore helicopter accident in the Gulf of Mexico on December 9, 1977, that took the lives of 17 of the 19 men onboard, almost all of whom were young men in their 20s and 30s. The accident weighed heavily on Margaret’s mind.

Many years later, in an interview, she would recall thinking to herself at the time, “My gosh, why can’t something be done about this?” (Pratt, 2004). She was unable to find an underwater egress training program anywhere in the United States. Even prior to the accident, Margaret had been dismayed to learn that although companies were required to have safety equipment, they were not required to train the (mostly) men how to use it.

Because of her reputation in aquatics, she had been approached about offering water safety training to petroleum company employees – as well as various branches of the US military – and had been doing so for several years before taking early retirement from USL. The courses received an enthusiastic response from the men, many of whom had served in WWII and remembered warfare aquatics, and word spread. She said it was “one of the most exciting experiences of my life” when a group of oilmen that had taken her safety training course stood up and gave her a five-minute standing ovation (Pratt, 2004).

Margaret, who traveled the world and worked alongside men of international renown, claims rarely to have encountered what she calls a “male chauvinist,” although she distinctly remembers one man, whom she says pointedly was “from the United States of America,” who was “infuriated” that a woman was representing the US at the 1977 Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO)12 meeting. She didn’t seem to take it personally and chalked it up to being an era “when, you know, a woman working her way into a man’s field was just unbelievable” (Pratt, 2004).

After taking early retirement, Margaret had established her own company, McMillan Offshore Safety Training (MOST), which would go on to become a family business. Several of her nephews, who had grown up taking swimming lessons from her and who now shared her passion for safety, joined the new venture.

“I do not know how to say this without getting a little emotional,” she said in a 2004 interview, “because I did not do it by myself. Nobody ever does anything by themselves. And sometimes the others who have helped and contributed do not get the credit. There were so many people that were very instrumental in this total thing. One of the things that I am particularly proud of is the fact that I have four nephews, three of whom – and this is part of my legacy – have followed me into this world” (Pratt, 2004).

Margaret would make numerous trips overseas, gleaning as much as she could from other countries, such as England, Scotland, and Norway, whose water survival training programs were more advanced than those in the US. Her travels abroad also included attending nine meetings of the IMCO during the time she was associated with the US Coast Guard. The first one was all the more memorable because it was then that she met Dr. Joe Cross, the managing director of the Robert Gordon Institute of Technology (RGIT) Survival Centre in Aberdeen, a legend in offshore survival training, whom Margaret considered her mentor. She also was delighted to learn the Coast Guard had called her its “secret weapon”! (Pratt, 2004).

In 1988, Margaret was instrumental in the creation of the Marine Survival Training Center at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. At the time, it was the only facility of its kind in the United States. It has grown to become world-renowned, with a state-of-the-art modular egress training simulator – a far cry from the days when Margaret trained men to escape from a straight-back chair submerged in water!

In 2004, Margaret became the first woman to be inducted into the Offshore Energy Center’s Hall of Fame in Houston, Texas, where her contributions to offshore safety and survival training were recognized under the Health, Safety & Environment category in Pioneering Technologies.

While she is in illustrious company – Paul N. “Red” Adair, former US President George H.W. Bush, and Billy Pugh are among her fellow Hall of Fame recipients under various categories – she remained the only female inductee until 2016 when fellow American Lillian Espinoza-Gala was inducted as an Industry Champion for her work in Health and Safety. (Each year since then, at least one woman has been inducted.)13