Fortescue Metals : Empower your Career Summit showcases mining to women

Nov 20, 2019

Fortescue Metals Group (Fortescue) hosted the inaugural Empower your Career Summit to showcase female careers in mining. Attended by over 450 women and held at the Fortescue Centre, Perth, the event bought together 14 contractors and suppliers, together with representatives from across Fortescue to talk about the range of employment opportunities offered by the mining industry.

Speaking at the Summit, Fortescue Chief Executive Officer, Elizabeth Gaines, said 'Mining is an exciting, fascinating, cutting edge industry and we are determined to ensure that as many people as possible, including women, have an opportunity to be a part of it.

'For a company to be the best it can be, it needs to harness the very best ideas across every part of its business. At Fortescue, we are very proud of the diversity of our workforce which has been fundamental to our success.

'This year, our female employment rate reached 19 per cent, with 26 per cent of senior management positions held by women as at 30 June 2019. We want our female employment rate to continue to grow and we remain focussed on implementing initiatives such as child care and flexible work arrangements that help families balance work and family responsibilities, while having a rewarding career,' Ms Gaines said.

Group Manager Fortescue People, Linda O'Farrell, said the idea for the Empower your Career Summit came from the regular contractor diversity forums hosted by Fortescue.

'Fortescue has hosted four contractor forums over the last two years and they have provided an important opportunity to share learnings and best practice to increase diversity in the mining industry.

'I would like to thank all of our contractor partners for participating in the Summit and for their commitment to supporting women in mining,' Ms O'Farrell said.