More women fill jobs that can lead to the top in male-dominated industry

HOUSTON — If it's lonely at the top, it's also strikingly male, at least in the oil business.

Chief executive jobs in the energy industry continue to be among the most male-dominated positions, an industry expert told an audience here this week at the Women's Global Leadership Conference in Energy and Technology.

But there's good news, said Deborah Byers, a managing partner at Ernst & Young's Houston office. Positions that lead to the top job increasingly are being filled by women.

“Don't fixate on the C-level,” Byers said, pointing out that many women are in senior positions. “You can find yourself having influence and being able to change the way a firm works at other levels.”

Fortune magazine recently said the world's most powerful woman executive is Maria das Graças Silva Foster, CEO of Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras. But only two women in energy were on the magazine's list of most powerful female executives in the U.S. And none was in the Top 10.

The industry's recent growth has created a shortage of talent that could open up new opportunities for women, Byers said.

She said women sometimes are too quick to assume that opportunities either don't exist or will conflict with future life goals, including having children.

“Don't opt out too early,” Byers said, noting that younger women sometimes drop out before an actual work-life conflict exists. “Give your company and leadership the chance to make it work.”

The conference Tuesday and Wednesday at a hotel in downtown Houston drew about 700 attendees.