For Immediate Release 


Results of the 7th Annual Egret Consulting Group’s “ Women in the Electrical Industry ” Survey

Mundelein, IL 5-6-2011. The percentage of female attendees at the National Association of Electrical Distributors Annual National Summit decreased in 2011 to 7.4% for all attendees. By absolute numbers, the total female registration at this conference was only 39, of a total attendance of 525. The absolute numbers indicate that female attendance was close to the median attendance levels for the past 7 years of this study. By category, Distributors had 15 female attendees of 243 total registrants and Manufacturers had 24 female attendees of 282 total registrants. 

Ted Konnerth, President and CEO of Egret commented on the survey results saying, “Our survey results seem to be in line with the position that the electrical industry is still a heavily male-dominated industry. While several large corporations have active diversity recruitment policies, the legacy firms haven’t changed. Although the typical assumption is that the minority representation is due to the fact that the industry is a trade-oriented industry where women have not chosen to enter labor ranks in large numbers, there is still a strong resistance within electrical distributors and manufacturers to proactively attract women or minorities as a talent strategy. As the industry changes rapidly with the advent of new technologies, it will be imperative for the major players to attract a more diverse workforce to maintain market share. The legacy position of denying that the issue is due to women not choosing the industry is short-sighted and as the industry will require more highly-educated labor with the burgeoning technology changes, the talent acquisition strategy will have to change to a proactive solicitation of diversity in order to meet future labor requirements." 


Egret Consulting Group is a boutique search firm that specializes solely in the electrical industry. Egret’s clients include: electrical manufacturers, electrical wholesale distributors and lighting design firms. As the largest recruiting firm dedicated exclusively to the electrical industry, Egret regularly works with firms of all sizes. To view the results of other Egret Surveys, please go to the: Egret Newsletter Archive or http://www.egretconsulting.com/website/newsletter.htm 

Ted Konnerth PhD, is President/CEO of Egret Consulting Group located in Mundelein, IL. Prior to founding Egret Consulting in 1999, Konnerth was with Cooper Industries for 16 years and served as vice president of global sales for 4.5 years for the $1 billion lighting division. 

Contact: 
Christina Parhas
Egret Consulting Group
cp@egretconsulting.com