Forty per cent of the members of StatoilHydro ASA's new board are women.
Gender equality is an important part of our personnel policy. After the merger, the proportion of female employees in the group is 35.2%.
The proportion of female managers is 26%. Among managers under the age of 45, the proportion of women is 34%.
Women are relatively well represented in the technical disciplines. In 2006, 22% of our staff engineers were women, and on average their earnings were 98% of the earnings of their male colleagues.
Among staff engineers with up to 20 years' experience, the proportion of women was 33%. Wage levels were roughly the same for women and men with the same experience and corresponding positions.
The proportion of our skilled workers who are women is 18.2%. On average, female skilled workers have slightly lower basic salaries than male skilled workers. This is due to differences in jobs and in number of years' experience.
In the group as a whole, women earn 91% of men's earnings. This is due to differences in experience and in the proportion of women and men at different levels in the organisation.
One of the measures introduced to meet our long-term recruitment needs and ensure access to personnel with different experience and backgrounds is the group trainee programme.
We received a total of 2,000 applications for the programme from 91 different countries. The selection of candidates was completed in February 2008.
At the end of 2007, we had signed contracts with 18 trainees from eight countries.
