Friday was a day of quiet celebration among professional women in Calgary as the news filtered out that Shell Canada had appointed Linda Cook as its new chief executive officer.

Not only is Ms. Cook's appointment a first for the oil patch, since there has never been a woman at the helm of a large oil and gas company -- she won't be the lone female in the executive suite, because the incoming chief financial officer, Cathy Williams, is also a woman.

Even better, both are moms.

Shell is to be congratulated on its progressive move, because Calgary's oil patch is lacking when it comes to promoting women into the senior ranks beyond the pink ghetto of human resources.

According to Stella Thompson, a principal with consulting firm Governance West, when it comes to women holding executive positions at oil and gas companies, the numbers haven't changed much in 10 years.

While some of this might be because of the fact that the engineering and geophysics disciplines have not historically yielded an abundance of female graduates, that trend has shifted in the past 10 years, with more female high-school grads than ever enrolling in undergraduate science programs.

But despite this trend, if Ms. Cook and Ms. Williams were to convene a meeting of other women in positions of similar authority, a small meeting room at the Petroleum Club would more than suffice, even if they were to invite some of the women who are no longer in the patch, such as Dee Parkinson-Marcoux, Nancy Smith or Laurie Schuller.

The Pete Club, where so many oil patch deals are hatched and sealed, comes to mind for a couple of reasons. Back in 1983-84, when Pat Carney was serving as energy minister under Brian Mulroney, Ms. Carney was in Calgary meeting with oil patch executives, only to be denied access to the august club because she was the wrong gender. This of course was a huge embarrassment because Calgary's 1950s mentality was exposed for all to see. But it still took until 1989 for the rules to change, and today only 52 of the Pete Club's 1,514 members are women.

Things aren't necessarily getting better either.

On balance, part-time working arrangements are at best tolerated but not encouraged. What's that about? Even the law firms have partners who work part time. It seems fairly obvious that if a company accommodates the needs of a woman as she raises a young family, it will be rewarded with both productivity and loyalty. By asking women to fit into a rigid structure, productivity slips, loyalty never develops and the company usually finds itself in the position of having to find someone new. That's not exactly the most cost-effective approach, nor is it good for developing a healthy corporate culture. The only place part time seems to be more accepted is at the smaller companies.

But Shell appears to have figured it out.

Is it because the company is headquartered in the Netherlands, a country known for its broad-minded approach to human rights, education, health care and societal needs?

Perhaps.

But for those women in Calgary who have yet to break through the glass ceiling, hopes are high today that Shell's decision will remind senior management and boards of directors at other companies around town that the talent pool represented by women is formidable, tangible and credible.

And if they don't believe me, they can look at Linda Hohol, who was the highest-ranking woman at CIBC when she left in 1999 and is now heading up the CDNX; Christine Silverberg, Calgary's former police chief; Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard; or Maureen Kempston-Darkes at General Motors.

The financial services, high-technology and retail sectors have figured out that it's no longer enough to give lip service to gender equality, and that means having more than one or two women on their boards of directors or executive leadership teams. It's about time the oil patch joined the 21st century.

At a time when women are bombarded with negative messages about choosing work over staying at home, the achievements of Ms. Cook and Ms. Williams should serve as positive reinforcement that there are no limits.

With Shell's move, the dam has burst.

Now it's up to other companies in the oil patch to follow suit. Which of these powerful female executives will it be next? Jackie Sheppard at Talisman Energy or Kathleen Sendall at Petro-Canada, Drude Rimell and Una Power at Nexen, Bonnie DuPont at Enbridge, Dawn Farrell at TransAlta or Sarah Raiss at TransCanada PipeLines?
dyedlin@globeandmail.ca