When considering the issue of women being better represented at senior or any other level (now I come to think of it) in business (for example), it must make sense to encourage mixed networks that have the benefit of providing rich and valuable perspectives for men and women. One group debating amongst themselves will not reach as useful set of conclusions or understanding as a group comprised of both men and women. Men have a great deal to learn from women in business and vice versa – we need to debate and move ahead in sync with each other.

So, I support the view of those above who have suggested that there is value in women’s networks and mixed networks that focus on enhancing success for both, without unwittingly creating the diametrically opposite challenge by trying to fix the other – a case of endeavouring to keep the see-saw a level playing field that enables talent to rise whatever its source or gender.

1. Women are more equally represented in senior management.
2. Women learn how to get equal access to networking, training, and information within the existing corporate environment.
3. Women start taking on more bottom-line driven positions.
4. Companies learn how to handle maternity leave and child care.
5. Our culture fully accepts that women may be the breadwinners and that child care duties are the responsibility of both parents.

I do run a women’s business organization (which is open to men), and I’ve noticed that over the years, all of our programs have become gender-neutral and hard skills-oriented. We may have started as a support/networking group for women hitting the glass ceiling, but now we’re all about teaching our members networking, negotiating, sales, marketing, public speaking, and social media skills that are not being provided to them in their existing corporate environment.

We’re not “fixing” our members, we’re giving them an advantage that for whatever reasons – gender or lack of opportunity – they are not getting elsewhere. And, hopefully teaching them how to fix their own organizations!

Of course, companies don’t call it “fixing”, but they’ve been “fixing” men for over 30 years with leadership development programs that overfocus on interpersonal skills – the major skill area where men are consistently rated as underperforming women.

Women are underserved in these programs because they do little to address the real and perceived skill deficits for which we’re consistently rated as underperforming men. This is the first of two major problems with some internal women’s networks. The second is that women’s networks are too often disconnected from the business.

At Leading Women we are honored to work with amazing women in companies that are working hard to get and stay on the right path. We help network leaders determine how best to align the activities of the network with the real development needs of women and business needs of the organization. One recent CEO said that he now views the women’s network as a partner in talent management. And over 75% of women who’ve gone through our leadership programs are promoted or receive increased responsibility.

Partner in talent management, advancing women to senior levels, contributing to organizational growth,. These are key goals toward which the best women’s networks are striving.

Lead ON!
Susan
CEO and Founder, Leading Women
author No Ceiling, No Walls: What women haven’t been told about leadership from career-start to the corporate boardroom (http://www.NoCeilingNoWalls.com)

What about the invaluable business women’s networks? We need to connect in supportive groups to establish good relationships to do business. Sometimes the more mixed groups the women get left out.

I have a beautiful statuesque blond friend in business. She is in multi media, she is brainy she is a lovely person, yet why does everyone go to her partner to ask him the technical questions? It’s even funnier when he defers to her.

I understand the comment that mens networks take out the weakest and women’s the strongest, but it is not necessarily the case always. This leaves the impression that women are fighting to remain at the top. However, some of the most successful women I know, in corporates and in their own businesses truly support other women in their development and in helping others build business success of their own.

if you want to look good surround yourself with smart people.

Those women who seek to take out the strongest are probably unsure of themselves, threatened by capability and have no clue how to build sustainable relationships.

Networking, mentoring, and professional development organizations created for and by women provide women the opportunity to have our career aspirations ratified in the face of a world that still regards ambitious men as go-getters, while ambitious women are viewed as the b-word.

Yes, we can and should have both male and female mentors and supportive peers. But women’s networking organizations are uniquely transformative because they offer us a forum in which to explore ways that we, as women, have internalized the idea that somehow, on some day of reckoning, we’re going to pay (or our children will pay, or our marriage will suffer) if we go after our biggest dreams; they offer us a way to stop socially sanctioned self-sabotage in its tracks.

You get a group of women together. The goal is to give a woman support for being ambitious. You encourage her to see that she can have a great, happy life—at home and at work. And you show her that, counterintuitive though our culture makes it seem, the real life course for becoming the happiest woman, the best friend, lover, spouse, mother and community member she can possibly be is to always honor her ambition as a virtue. You support her to see that the real way to make the contribution she was born to make is to place her inspiring career dreams at the top of her priorities list, not at the bottom of the pile. Next you give her powerful professional information and business strategies that are easy to use in her day-to-day work and personal life. You show her simple, effective, powerful tactics that build on each other and that empower her to hit her career targets.

Then a light bulb goes off in her consciousness. And she never looks back.

She takes charge of her professional destiny. She learns to firmly insist on getting paid what she’s worth. She feels powerful in a new way—and owning it feels comfortable to her. She learns to feel great about being recognized for her professional accomplishments. She learns to set boundaries with colleagues and people in her personal life so that her needs get met, not trampled on. She learns that she can act with professional integrity and treat others like human beings, but that she feels just fine about the fact that not everyone is going to like her when she stands up to those who would steal her thunder.

I’ve seen this transformation occur with thousands of women I’ve worked with. I write about it in my book, “Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word: A Woman’s Guide To Earning Her Worth and Achieving Her Dreams.” I believe that women owe it to ourselves — and the world — to make the contribution we were born to make. Women empowering women is the best way to make that happen.

If we want to bring down the barriers, we perhaps need to first man – or woman – the barricades.