As per the ministerial decree which released on Sunday, all gender discriminations between male and female employees should be removed for all occupational positions, except for working on oil and gas platforms.

Appointing Ms. Marzieh Shahdaei as the managing director of the National Petrochemical Company was the oil minister’s first step toward providing women with equal employment opportunities with men.

Currently, a number of 17,000 women are working in the Iranian oil industry, including 7,000 official employees and 10,000 contractual employees. 

This number stands for about 8 percent of the oil industry’s total workforce. 

Educated women make up 7 percent of management posts in the oil industry. A number of three women are working as senior officials in grade “over D”, eight women are working as high-level officials in “grade D” and 350 women are working in other supervisory and managerial positions.

The majority of women working in the oil industry are 30-34 years old, most of them with a working experience of 10 to 15 years. More than 70 percent of women working in the oil industry hold a bachelor’s or higher degree which proves the experience and high scientific level of female forces in the oil industry.

NM/MG