Feb 19 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Snejana Farberov Daily News, New York

 

In 1979, things were quite different for women in America: Only about 50 percent were in the workforce, they earned 40 percent less than men and the corporate "glass ceiling" seemed unbreakable.

However, 1979 also was the year Nancy Yieh, then 22 and a new graduate from Cooper Union with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, first entered the job market -- determined not to let some transparent obstacle stop her.

Coming from a family of "techies," Yieh, of Forest Hills, first became interested in engineering back in high school.

"I was very good in math [and] science, and I was a very practical kid," Yieh said. "I knew that if I was an engineer, I could always find a job."

It turns out she was right. At the time she graduated, the industry was hot for young professionals with her skills. She rose through the corporate ranks and is now vice president of gas operations for Con Edison.

"I chose Con Edison because of my major -- I enjoyed power engineering," said Yieh, 48.

However, when Yieh first came on board, women were still a curiosity at Con Ed.

She said that male colleagues "didn't see a lot" of women engineers.

"I don't think people were threatened by us," she added.

Over the years, Con Edison earned its reputation as one of the leading companies in diversity training, making Fortune magazine's "50 Best Companies for Minorities" list. In 2005, 20.9 percent of Con Edison officers were women, as were more than 18 percent of the hires.

"There are a lot more opportunities, and there are a lot more women in the company," Yieh said. "Women are moving into managerial ranks more quickly."

Some of Yieh's female colleagues in executive positions are Katherine Boden, vice president of Manhattan electrical operations, and Saumil Shukla, general manager of steam distribution.

Thanks to the corporate strategy of Con Edison that encouraged employees to "move around" the company, Yieh got a chance to work in various divisions: power generation, construction, substation operations and, finally, gas operations, where she was promoted to vice president in 2004.

"Con Edison was pretty good about promoting women and minorities," she said.

Today, Yieh, a mother of two teenage girls, is in charge of 600 employees -- most of them men -- who service the entire Con Edison gas distribution system in New York City and Westchester.