By Cleo Thompson, founder of The Gender Blog

“I haven’t got time for networking”, one senior woman from a major City of London investment bank told me recently.

“All that standing around in rooms full of complete strangers, drinking either bad wine at the end of a long day, or bad coffee and stale croissants at the start of another day – no thanks. It’s so unstructured and unfocused, and such a bad use of my time. I’m sure there probably ARE useful and interesting people at some of these events – but how on earth do you find them in a packed room, and what use might we be to each other?”

Other women told a similar tale, with one commenting that she had now stopped going along to organised “group meet ups”, as she found that she either knew no-one, or would see a familiar face in the crowd and then “cling to that person for the whole evening, thus negating the idea of meeting new people!”

In response to this changing mindset – and independently of each other – two London based women have begun to evolve a more nuanced, “networking 2.0” framework, which delivers the benefits of what we might perhaps call “old school” networking – expanding your contacts, sharing connections and skills – but which also uses technology and social media interfaces.

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By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

We know that boards have not been historically women-friendly and the numbers of women on corporate boards are still incredibility low despite the strong correlation between diversity of thought and company performance. Specifically, when there is a critical mass of women board members (which is quoted as 3 female seats at the table) a tipping point is created for a successful attempt at inclusion with the desired benefit of breaking groupthink.

Many senior women have made it to the top of their department, and even make it into the executive management team. But they find themselves at a loss because they just haven’t built the network they need to take them from being a respected professional to recognized expert to a formal director of a company on a corporate board.

“No women can be chosen for a job, promotion, a nomination for public office, a seat on a board of directors, a slot in a training program unless women are in the pool of finalists” states Linda Tarr-Whelan in her book Women lead the Way.

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

I’ve never been fond of the imagery associated with the phrase “hunting and gathering,” conjuring up visions of big cavemen-types hurling spears at bison, while their female companions gingerly pick berries nearby. In fact, research has shown that this is often a bit more of a stereotype than a hard-wired reality. For example, a study of the Philippine Agta culture showed that women hunters regularly outperform their male counterparts – and mixed-sex groups do best of all: “Their rates are even better when they combine forces with men: mixed hunting groups have a full 41% success rate among the Agta.”

Why the scholarly introduction, you ask?

It seems that a similar division of the sexes is taking place in the business arena as well – even if it is within the bounds of the corporate auditorium, the conference room, the multi-purpose area. The line of discussion says that one reason women still lag behind in corporate leadership positions is because their networking style is simply different then men’s – preferring to seek out deeper professional connections than embarking on the broader approach associated with men: collecting casual acquaintances and leveraging them when the need arises. Women are hunting for a few deep, professional connections, rather than gathering many casual ones.

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By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

For all the progress women have made in the workplace, the numbers just aren’t showing it. One Chicago group is shaking its head at the statistics and looking at ways to increase the amount of women on corporate boards.

The Chicago Network, an organization dedicated to connecting and promoting high-profile women, has published an annual Census for the past 12 years. Taking a look at the top 50 publicly reported companies in the Chicagoland area, from Fortune 500 and Crain’s Chicago Business, the group determined that in 2009, growth had slowed for women climbing the corporate ladder.

“Roughly 15% of board seats are filled by women in the top 50 publicly reported companies in Chicago,” said Cheryl Francis, the Chair of The Chicago Network. “When we first started publishing the Census, women filled 10% of board seats but there has been very little movement since 2003.”

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