In June 2023, the OECD Ministerial Council adopted the Recommendation on Improving the Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector. This international policy instrument represents a high political commitment by adhering countries to implement a series of recommendations to attract women into the nuclear sector; to retain and support women in the nuclear workforce; to advance and develop women as leaders in the sector and to enhance their contributions; and to track progress through data and establish accountability mechanisms, including public goal setting and reporting.
The Recommendation was based on the first-ever international data on women’s representation in the nuclear sector published by the NEA in March 2023 in the report Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector. A total of 96 organisations in 17 countries provided detailed human resources statistics and around 8 000 women in 32 countries answered a survey about their nuclear workplace experiences. Now in 2026, the NEA is re-launching data collection to provide a critical update to this flagship report on gender balance in the nuclear sector.
NEA and non-NEA member countries are welcome to participate.
Participating organisations are asked to provide gender-disaggregated human resources data, which will be pivotal for measuring progress over time since the publication of our report on Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector.
Organisations: Download and upload submission here
Individuals of all genders working in the nuclear sector are invited to share their views in the survey so that the NEA can to better understand current perceptions of gender balance in the nuclear workplace, aspirations and professional development, the barriers and challenges that need to be addressed, and to identify solutions.
Individuals: Submit your response here
The NEA will use survey instruments developed for its 2023 report Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector (see the annexes to the report) modified based on updates from a 2025 data collection initiative for nuclear regulatory bodies. Participating organisations will be asked to provide gender-disaggregated human resources data to the NEA and to send a survey link to employees of all genders.
All data collected will be handled by the NEA according to the highest data protection standards of the OECD. Participating organisations will receive a summary of organisational-level results. It will be at the discretion of the organisation to publish these organisational-level trends. The NEA report will capture aggregate trends across the sample of participating organisations in a manner similar to the 2023 report.
The mandate of the High-Level Group on Improving the Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector (HLG-GB) was approved by the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy in October 2023. The group started its work in January 2024 with the mandate of facilitating the implementation and monitoring of the Recommendation of the OECD Council on Improving the Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector. This includes collecting and organising the data necessary to inform policymakers, and developing international policy, guidance, toolkits and best practices to help member countries address barriers and challenges related to the development and advancement of careers for women in the nuclear sector. The HLG-GB serves as a forum for discussion and sharing information, as well as an action-oriented vehicle for collecting data, analysis, and elaborating policy and guidance for tracking and increasing the contributions of diverse women to the sector to achieve gender balance.
For any questions, please contact the NEA at gender@oecd-nea.org.
