Women need their own networks
Business women have arrived in sufficient numbers to club together.
There’s a moment at business events when you approach a circle of people, clutching a glass close to your chest and your pride even closer, and hope that the circle opens to let you in. Sometimes the circles open, like at the recent event at Gilbert + Tobin where 60 women in the middle executive ranks gathered to hear talks, meet people outside their usual circles and, basically, network.
Sometimes, the circles don’t. “I’ve walked into rooms of men standing in circles and, on more than one occasion, the circles do not open, whereas I’ve never walked into a room where women are standing in a circle and not been invited in.”
So says Carol Schwartz, board director, diversity activist, philanthropist and an early member of Chief Executive Women, who admits she hasn’t always been a supporter of women-only circles. Schwartz is currently a fan and she’s not alone because women’s networks are booming.
It’s possible to list 40 major women’s groups ranging from those of the highest status, such as CEW, to locals like Central Coast Collective. Some are well established, like Women’s Network Australia; others are newly global, like Business Chicks. Many are industry specific, such as Australian Women Lawyers, and some are new and ambitious, such as the Women’s Circle and Future Women.
The rise in both the number of networks and their memberships signals an interesting moment for women in business — they have arrived in sufficient numbers to club together — but it also points to a new imperative for making connections in economies that work like ecosystems.
Professor Adam Grant, author of the lauded 2013 book Give and Take, puts it this way: “For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others.”
Schwartz is a well-known networker, although she would object to the description. “People say that but I say, no, I really enjoy meeting people and sharing stories and information and connecting with people. And a lot of women are like that and you can tell that by their interactions — they’re not looking over your shoulder for someone more important to talk to.”
The Melbourne-based company director and property entrepreneur has form in networking. Not only was she an early member of CEW but she was founding chair of Women’s Leadership Institute Australia and her contacts are spread across industries and organisations. But you won’t find her handing out her business cards at conferences.
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“Networking isn’t just about getting help for your career,” she says. “It’s much broader than that. It’s about creating opportunities at every level. Men have been very good at this — facilitating opportunities for other men. Women are just late to the party. Wherever women are making an impact on an industry — finance, media, venture capital — they are getting together. What that says is it’s no longer one or two of us; it says we have critical mass; we have a voice, we must be acknowledged.”
Schwartz cautions that “it’s as stupid for women to network only with other women as it was for men to only network with men 60 years ago” but she adds that the women-only groups recognise that “there are certain issues we deal with and face in careers that we feel more comfortable talking about with other women”.
‘Men have been very good at this — facilitating opportunities for other men. Women are late to the party’
The idea that honest, even intimate conversations with women can boost careers was confirmed by a study published in Harvard Business Review earlier this year. The study — Men and Women Need Different Kinds of Networks to Succeed — pointed out that women, like men, benefit from broad networks but they also need to have an inner circle of close female contacts. It posited that “because women seeking positions of executive leadership often face cultural and political hurdles that men typically do not, they benefit from an inner circle of close female contacts (with whom) they can share private information, about things like an organisation’s attitudes towards female leaders”.
If women’s networks feel different from the men’s networks of yesterday, it might be in their formality. Men’s networks were often organic and informal — it was the group you went to school with, your university buddies, golf mates or simply the blokes you met in business. For men, networks just happened. Women have to make them happen.
“I don’t think the men really need this formal way of meeting,” says lawyer and company director Sheila McGregor. “I’m not aware of any senior men saying ‘let’s get some young men in and talk to them about development and networking’. Maybe it happens organically or perhaps they don’t think they need it. But what we’re doing is putting women’s networks on steroids because we’re in catch-up mode.”
McGregor has just set up Women’s Circle at the G+T Sydney office, after asking major organisations to nominate mid-career women (the Melbourne network launched last year). By targeting women at general manager level, the firm is targeting future leaders but it’s also a crucial time for women in their careers.
If early years in a career are all about proving capabilities, then the thirties and forties are the time to build networks that will enhance progression. Women, however, often miss these networking years because of the pressures of family.
McGregor describes the events as learning experiences, saying: “This introduces them to people they wouldn’t necessarily meet and to industries or institutions they might not have thought about before.” But it’s the talks from directors and CEOs like Elizabeth Bryan, Anna Bligh, Liz Ann McGregor, Louise Herron and Sam Mostyn that resonate. “Everyone loves seeing these incredibly successful women and discovering what made them like that, what pitfalls there were along the way.”
One of the veterans of women’s networks is Wendy McCarthy, a founder of Women’s Electoral Lobby, Women in Education, later CEW and Women’s Forum. And she’s still a fan. “The network for women is the equivalent of the club for men and it’s not hierarchical, which suits women,” she says.
McCarthy thinks the business networks are “an extension of what women have done for centuries, meet around the kitchen table. That sense of belonging is what women are looking for and it’s apparent in all the groups that women form, from girls’ online groups to mum groups.”
In the workforce, though, McCarthy thinks these networks fulfil a need once met by unions. “The networks around areas of interest — women in super, women in finance — do talk about work and conditions, and even though they’re not unions, that need is interesting. I suspect (ACTU secretary) Sally McManus would love to have some of those networks.”
The energy that comes from women sharing stories with other women was the reason Helen McCabe decided to start the Future Women network a year ago. “I remember in 2015, running a scholarship reward program for the Australian Women’s Weekly at the NSW Art Gallery, and I had lined up a great panel — Peta Credlin, Jesinta Campbell and Annabel Crabb — and the thing that occurred to me was the energy in that room. It was electric and everyone was there to celebrate women and I thought, there’s something in this,” says the then editor of the Weekly. Credlin and Crabb are broadcasters; Campbell is a model.
“At the time I was dealing with falling circulations and trying to figure out how to make it work and what business model might make it work.”
A year later, McCabe had joined the Nine group and found a vehicle for harnessing that energy. “We’ve flipped the newspaper model of using the masthead to build events, and we’re using events to build a brand. Some have said we’re not sure what you are and I’m okay with that. We’re focused on building a membership base and we’ll see what can be done with that.”
Future Women brings together professional women, aged roughly 25 to 54 years, under the banner of content and events. It’s monetised through membership fees, sponsorships and events, and while McCabe says the venture is still in the testing phase, she’s convinced the demographics of enthusiastic, professional women is a valuable one.
“What we’re finding is they want more events,” she says. “It might be because they’re living fast-paced lives with pressure to achieve and too much time spent on social media, but they want to be social. There’s a real hunger to see success, especially among young women.”
It’s not surprising that these networks are being monetised. Done well, events held under the banner of professional women are not just LinkedIn with canapes. Nor are they the amorphous clubs of old boys, swapping jobs and opportunities around golf links. Women’s networks are evolving into a distinctive and quietly powerful movement.
“But I don’t see it as a club,” says Schwartz. “Perhaps because I don’t like the connotations of elitism and exclusion, and clubs have often been treated as refuges from the world, I see this as engaging more broadly.”
McGregor, too, points to the goodwill shown by successful women. “Every woman I’ve asked to speak has said yes and it’s because they’re really interested in helping and sharing with other women, especially those who are mid-career.”
‘I don’t see it as a club ... I see this as engaging more broadly’
The many different ways of networking have been raked over and mostly found wanting.
Most agree it’s not about tugging on the sleeves of the powerful at cocktail events, or swapping cards at conferences or how many people view your profile on LinkedIn. Indeed, according to Grant, it’s more about giving than taking.
In an article titled Networking is Over-rated, Grant cautioned those who hope canapes and conversations will boost their careers. “Don’t feel pressure to go to networking events,” he wrote. “No one really mixes at mixers. The best networking happens when people gather for a purpose other than networking, to learn from one another or help one another.”
Women’s networks might not be more successful at helping other women than the men’s networks of old but they are more overt about that mission.
And men are noticing.
“Oh, yes,” says McCarthy. “There is anxiety among men about this, that idea that we could be getting out of control, and that’s healthy.”
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