The Women in Energy series is a joint project between USEA and USAID to help improve the visibility of women's participation and leadership in the traditionally male-dominated energy sector and their active participation in policies and gender outcomes in organizations.

Every month we feature a woman who has shown exemplary leadership. The women highlighted come from diverse backgrounds and roles, and they bring with them a unique perspective on gender equality within the energy sector. We believe that increasing women's leadership and participation in decision-making for climate policies needs active communications campaigns and championing that catalyze behavioral change and urgent action.

1. How have your education and career path led you to where you are now?

I studied Business Administration at the Norwegian University for Life Sciences before pursuing a Masters’ of Law at the University of Oslo. While doing my five-year long law degree, I worked Back Office for a security company, handling compliance and quality control, debt collection and bankruptcies. As my law degree progressed, I got more responsibilities and involved in legal processes, development of contracts and procedures. Prior to my job in the security company, I worked eight years in a stone quarry, where I did everything from serving customers to digging in the dirt and driving or repairing big machines. That job sparked my interest in industry, heavy machinery and natural resources. My interest led me to a specialization in law school in petroleum law and petroleum contracts.

During the last semester of my law degree, I secured an internship and scholarship for my master thesis with a major Norwegian law firm, that ended up hiring me after graduation. I was fortunate to be employed in the department for petroleum and energy, a job that exposed me to the then emerging CCUS industry alongside petroleum and energy law from day one. I was also allowed to participate and contribute to writing regulatory frameworks for oil and gas for developing countries as well as advising on public international legal issues, such as maritime delimitation and general treaty law.

After four years with the firm, I got a leave of absence to pursue a fixed-time position in Brussels for the Global CCS Institute, which gave me the chance not just to build a network and learn from leaders in the CCUS industry, but also to reinvent myself and build confidence in my own abilities. When I returned to Norway after almost a year in Brussels, I ended up starting my own firm, with CCUS as the focus area. Today, seven and a half years later, the firm is working on these issues globally and we have attracted talent from around the world. A majority of our talent pool is women.

I started working on standardization issues for CCUS in 2014 and have since 2022 been leading the Norwegian CCUS delegation to International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and now European Committee for Standardization (CEN).

A lot of my work is in the United States. I ended up pursuing an LLM at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, in the U.S. to better serve my clients. Obtaining a Masters’ Degree while running a law firm with a global client base and a lot of travel was a challenge, but Lewis & Clark has a fantastic online program that allowed me to adopt the study schedule to my busy work schedule, and I graduated in May 2024.

2. Over the course of your career, have you witnessed changes in the sector that have launched more women seeking out education or a career path in environment, natural resources and energy law in your country or countries you have worked in?

There are definitely more women in the industry than when I started. My observation is that the industry has changed dramatically over the years among other things due to the climate emergency, the need for diversifying portfolios and the focus on decarbonizing existing portfolios to make energy and natural resource production more sustainable. Many of the traditional oil and gas companies, as well as other heavy-emitting industries, have taken steps both to decarbonize and change their images. The climate emergency has also given birth to many new companies. The changes have led to more available jobs, and new type of jobs, which may be more attractive to women. Law firms’ energy and industry portfolios also reflect these changes, resulting in more young lawyers working with these issues as external counsels. In Norway, we may have as much as 70% of the law students being female, implying the portion of young female jurists and lawyers entering the field of energy, environment and natural resources, either as internal or external counsels, most likely is larger than their male counterparts.

Young people in general, and maybe women in particular, are forward looking and want to take part in slowing down climate change while improving the standard of living. This has not just resulted in more graduates seeking jobs within the sector, but also being vocal about what they look for in an employer. They seek out employers who have ambitious goals for green transition and decarbonization. Women have also become better at protecting a work-life balance, which has them looking for employers accommodating for more time with family and social activities. It seems to me that many of the companies that have either diversified their portfolio and changed their image, or have been born out of the climate emergency, are taking this to heart and to a larger extent try to accommodate.

Other changes I have seen over my career are technology development and geopolitical changes allowing us more flexibility to work whenever and from wherever we want and need. This allows women to not only begin careers in environment, natural resources and energy law, but to stay and even evolve if, for example, they have children or for other reasons need more flexibility.

3. When you talk about legal frameworks and business models on Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) where do you see the opportunity of Women’s Leadership and applying the gender equity and social inclusion lens?

I am not always good at keeping a gender perspective on things. Partly, this may be because of my Norwegian background. We have relatively flat structures and a relatively advanced framework and culture for equal opportunities. I have often thought of leadership as a gender-neutral thing, and that how you lead and how you perform should not depend on your gender. However, we don’t always have that luxury, and even in Norway I have observed women having more difficulties becoming partners or getting other leading positions then men. I think women, me included, need to consider how we can be role models for other women, as well demonstrating to men how we want to be met and treated. I also think we need to acknowledge that not all leadership comes from formal power or the name of your position. Every woman breaking a glass ceiling should take a moment to remember how and where they started out and extend support to other women. I have met some amazing female role models in my career who have not just paved the way and faced biases but are paying that forward to the next generation of women.

Talking of gender equity and social inclusion, is not just about interaction between the genders. I have seen men being great at supporting others and women not treating others as equal.  Unfortunately, some of the least accommodating people I have come across in my career are other women. Demanding men to treat women as equal is a tall order if we are not able to treat each other as equals or be each other’s support. My advice is to pay it forward, and to think of it as teams rather than individual. There is room and need for all of us, and we stand stronger against gender inequalities if we face them together.

4. What are your suggestions for someone who would like to follow in your career path/advance their role as a practitioner of legal frameworks of CCUS. Given there could be potential implicit biases in play?

There is no reason women shouldn’t succeed in the field of CCUS. My advice would be to work hard and come prepared, but also take an interest in the technologies and industry. CCUS is a multidisciplinary industry and not all the answers are found in a law book. One needs to engage in conversations with technical and commercial experts, participate in field trips and sign up for conferences and listen and learn. Also, one should not be afraid to ask questions. Often, someone else has the same question as you and usually, people enjoy getting a chance to explain something better. The more you know beyond the law itself, the better legal advice you can give. In the end, people tend to respect competency over gender in the end.

Another unfortunate, truth is that you will meet people who do not treat you with respect or who will treat you differently because you are a woman. This is not a reflection of you, but them. It is also sometimes hard to call out discrimination and bias based on gender and distinguish it from discrimination or a toxic culture in general. Try to find a group of trusted colleagues to share experiences with and to grow together. Finding a mentor may also be valuable, both for your mental and professional growth. Often, these confidants and mentors may be found in your proximity, and it does not have to be one in the same profession. However, if you are uncertain how to start or where to find a mentor, we have a group for women in CCUS, as well as a group for legal and policy professionals, on LinkedIn. Seek us out, or I can help find the groups if you reach out to me directly, and you will find a community of CCUS professionals both from legal and other professions, ready to welcome and support you in your career.

5. Have you faced any biases as a woman in the energy sector in your country or overseas? How have you overcome those challenges and what advise do you have for others facing similar challenges?

It is not always easy to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, and I believe that many of my fellow female colleagues may testify to this. In Norway, we are fortunate to have a society where women are free to express ourselves, follow our passions and dress as we like. However, both in Norway and internationally, the law, energy and CCUS industry have been male dominated, and I have often been the only woman in the room, and often the only lawyer. Both in Norway and abroad, I have experienced bias and unfortunate situations involving gender, with everything from direct physical and psychological harassment to my presence being ignored and undermined during meetings. In some countries I work in, I am unfortunately treated with more deference than the local women, which is hard to fathom. I am cautiously optimistic that this is slowly changing, and I have met and connected with some great female trailblazers in countries with unfortunate biases against women, setting amazing examples for their peers in both their countries and globally.

Dealing with gender bias and harassment has sometimes been very challenging, as it depends on the situation. But over time, I have become better at setting boundaries, removing myself from toxic environments and people, and I have reached an agreement with myself that burning a bridge is better than compromising my own mental health or integrity.

To me, embracing the fact that I am a woman, dressing up and taking space in the room, has been an effective shield. Also, as I have grown older, I allow more of the person behind the lawyer to shine through and I am less scared of showing others who I am. That being said, stepping into this role has taken time and effort, and required me to step out of my comfort zone over and over again over many years. As a founder of a company and mentor and manager for other people, I ensure to share experiences of bias and challenging situations with the team to encourage openness and mutual support. I emphasize that everything from laughter to tears are welcome, and that we do not need to pretend to be anyone else than ourselves. Our office shall be a safe place where we have each other's back. I believe that having a good support system at home makes you better equipped to meet the challenges outside of the office.

6. What would a typical day at work for someone in your career look like?

We are privileged to work in the emerging field of CCUS, where we are allowed to contribute to the creation of new legal frameworks and standards and support our clients to build business cases or strategies and deploy projects of global significance. This implies being outside the comfort zone a lot, as the preexisting knowledge base might be scarce. Lawyers are often used to having a legal framework, case law and literature to work from when advising clients. We often lack these things, as we try to help set them up.

I would like to say that few days are the same. It varies from being buried in legal research and analysis or the write-up of a legal framework, to sitting in back-to-back meetings or working from home. Also, when in the office, I spend a lot of time with my colleagues discussing, mentoring or working as a team. Even if the law is known as a profession with a lot of reading and writing, it is an oral profession where the solutions often come through discussion and thinking out loud. A team performs better and comes up with more solid solutions than an individual, as no one can have all the answers alone.

Another element of my workdays is that there is quite a lot of travel, with negotiations, conferences or project meetings. CCUS is a global emerging industry, with projects crossing borders, and where stakeholders share knowledge and collaborate to succeed.

7. What would be your top three practical recommendation for young women pursuing a career in legal framework or policy standpoint in energy especially CCUS frameworks for international development?

A thing I wished I knew or fully believed in ten years ago is that the imposter syndrome is not just something that applied to me when I started out as a young legal associate. Most of the people I have met over my career, even experienced people in high positions, report that they feel inadequate or not up for the task every now and then. The imposter syndrome lingers but you learn to live with it and potentially also use it as a strength.

Further, I have learned that keeping an open mind to opportunities and solutions has served me well. We probably all have ideas about how our future looks like and what we want to do when we grow up, and often these plans and ideas change along the way – even more so if we let it. I am still working on what to be when I grow up!

Finally, and as emphasized a couple of times already, I find value in paying it forward. It is not just because reaching out a hand to someone is a nice thing to do, but because for every person you engage with you learn something, you grow as an individual and you get to enlarge your network with interesting, talented and nice people.