Women must network differently than men. | Kunal Thakkar on Unsplash
What you probably already know: Studies have consistently shown that women encounter more significant challenges than men in building professional networks. Besides being excluded, networking often backfires on women, who are often criticized for trying to develop strategic connections. Research from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Michigan even finds that women who develop high-status networks are less respected and less-admired compared to women with ties to so-called “lesser” contacts. That flies in the face of current scientific literature proving that networking has numerous benefits, but most studies have been done on men. Participants in this study included workers at Chinese research and development firms and university engineering students, as well as adults in the United States recruited from a crowdsourcing marketplace.
Why it matters: “Our findings reveal a social-network dilemma for women that is contrary to a widely accepted belief that women should build their network with high-status individuals,” said coauthor Catherine Shea, assistant professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. “High-status network contacts may be necessary for success, but they create an extra social perceptual hurdle for women to overcome.” Notably, women with high-level networks were perceived as dominant and selfish, even though another report from Chief — a community that connects executive women — found that more than 80% of high-level professional women say they’ve used networking to advance their careers.
What it means: It’s seemingly a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” dilemma, though Shea notes that women who “explicitly demonstrated” that their networking was good for the entire organization rather than just themselves largely avoided criticism. “By revealing an unfortunate obstacle that women may face — the natural tendency of people to socially penalize women with high-status contacts — our research increases awareness of this bias so organizations can work against it and eradicate this form of gender inequality,” Shea said, adding that managers of all genders should promote formal mentorship programs and initiate sensitivity training.
What happens next: Networking strategist J. Kelly Hoey, author of the book A Networking Roadmap for Women Seeking to Flourish and Achieve More, suggests that women pursuing leadership roles must develop two specific types of networks instead of networking in the same way as men. One is a broad network of “weak” or loose ties and acquaintances. The other is a stronger, narrower network consisting of close, trusted female peers. She encourages women to refuse to settle for “good enough” and stop “performative” networking. “I’m noticing that networking has felt even more off lately,” she says in her newsletter, describing networking as building relationships that help women reach their goals and match their energy rather than seeking connections for their own sake. “Networking is proactively pursuing and protecting your ambition with equal precision.”
