Pop quiz.
How many women are CEOs of major power companies?
Thinking, thinking?
As of July 1, the answer will be six.
On Tuesday, Duke Energy announced the promotion of CFO Lynn Good to president and CEO of the company, a job that starts when current CEO Jim Rogers retires at the beginning of the month. When Good steps into her new role, the ascension will mark a watershed moment for women in utilities.
While women make up 25% of utility labor staff, women only account for 3.6% of utility CEOs and 12.9% of executive officers, Catalyst.org reports.
With so few women landing the top spot, the sheer sight of Lynn Good spearheading the most influential U.S. utility, is bound to be inspiring. Why? Because in corporate business and crew work, women are an anomaly.
“These are jobs where women aren’t really present even after all these years,” Meg Vasey, executive director of Tradeswomen Inc., told PG&E Currents. “I’d be on a job with 400 other men and I wouldn’t see another woman. I could go a week without hearing another woman’s voice.”
But as a wave of retirees leave utilities, women will jump to the front of utility leadership. And utilities such as PG&E are rapidly preparing for and realizing this shift.
In January, Vasey and the San Francisco-based PG&E launched a 10-week course to introduce 100 women to skills they might need to enter the utility industry. The course included lessons on scaling utility poles, welding and energy efficiency.
“We’re talking about jobs where you shower at the end of the day and not at the beginning,” Vasey told students. “You’re starting out in these types of jobs and it’s dirty, hard physical work.”
The small club of women utility CEOs already includes ComEd’s Ann Pramaggiore, Kimberly Harris at Puget Sound Energy, Debra Reed at Sempra Energy, Pat Kampling at Alliant Energy and Mary Powell at Green Mountain Power. Now, they have one more member among them.
When Duke’s board called to offer Good the CEO position, she "said yes immediately,” the rising exec told the Charlotte Business Journal Tuesday.
Want to read more? Check out our other coverage of Lynn Good's promotion to CEO at Duke Energy Inc.
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