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Breaking the Glass Ceiling With Women's Networking Groups
With women accounting for only about 20 percent of the partners in Chicago's largest firms, female lawyers are taking their career future into their own hands. Rather than simply working hard in the hope that business will come, or trying to break into longstanding male-dominated associations, women in Chicago are establishing their own formal and informal business networking groups to make connections and generate clients, according to Olivia Clarke in this month's issue of Chicago Lawyer Magazine.
What accounts for the success of women's networking groups in comparison to other types of marketing initiatives? First, women's networking groups give women an edge by sponsoring events that play to most women's comfort levels on the business networking scene. Whereas men prefer large events or taking prospective clients to dinner where they can "talk shop," women may transition from discussing business on one level to personal issues like childcare on another. In addition, women enjoy different activities and would often prefer to finish a brief or return home to their children rather than endure an afternoon on the golf course. In fact, it's those different preferences that lead Deni Caplan, a partner at a Chicago firm, to reject the suggestion of organizing a women's networking event at a hockey game and instead, to create Engage, a networking group within her firm that hosts events featuring networking, with charitable and educational components.
Women's networking functions needn't be limited to lawyers. Several lawyers interviewed for the article explained that they meet new people through political events or at women's conferences that span a variety of professions.
Have you found success in creating a business networking group? What initiatives have yielded the best results for you or your firm?
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on July 9, 2008 at 12:06 PM | Permalink
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