Networking, a tool for professional equality?
- Sylvain Langellier
- Apr 15
- 3 min read
Magazine, written by Sylvain Langellier, Managing Director of Networking Premium Group. A graduate of Paris VIII, the CLCF and trained at the INA, Sylvain Langellier is an entrepreneur and specialist in communications and the media. For 30 years, he has been helping CEOs to put their HR and networking strategies into action. ,
Networking, a lever for professional equality? In an ideal world, this would certainly be the case, but in real life, things are very different. Today, networking is essential if you want to progress professionally, acquire new skills, keep up to date with the latest information or start a new business.
As the saying goes "it's not what you know, it's who you know", relationships count just as much as skills. Networking opens the door to essential opportunities that are sometimes unsuspected. However, despite significant advances in equality, women continue to face challenges and obstacles that are quite different from those faced by men. Social codes and dynamics of influence still seem to work against them.
As the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review points out, men are favoured in informal contexts. After-work parties, ‘relaxation’ breaks and team-building activities are still places where women find it hard to fit in.
While men, thanks to male solidarity, progress more easily in networking environments, women still face negative stereotypes too often when they show their ambition. According to a recent LinkedIn study, men develop 37% more connections than women. Does this mean that men's professional networks are more effective and more accessible? It certainly does. This discrepancy inevitably has major repercussions on women's careers, particularly in terms of their opportunities to rise to management positions, even if the Rixain law aims to redress the balance.
But at a time when the professional world is extolling the virtues of inclusion, it's worth remembering that networking is a key vector of visibility, access and influence.
The challenges of networking for women
Women are often less available to take part in events or meetings outside the workplace. Even if there has been an improvement in the sharing of tasks, their family responsibilities limit their access to informal networks. There are also far fewer female role models, so there are fewer opportunities for them to be identified, relayed or recommended to network.
Stereotypes are tenacious. Women have to redouble their efforts to be accepted into networks of influence. In professional interactions, they are often perceived as less skilled or less ambitious than their male counterparts.
Why is networking essential for women?
Yet numerous studies show that networking is essential for women to break through the glass ceiling. Networks give women access to mentors, sponsors and inspirational role models, opening the doors to sectors where they are in the minority, such as technology, industry and engineering.
While external networking in networks or clubs is particularly conducive to business development, internal networking creates more opportunities for women to progress within the company. Internal networking increases the visibility of female employees within the company, enabling them to understand all the inner workings of the business and keep up to date with the latest developments.
Sharing advice, strategies and resources to overcome gender-based career obstacles, networking is a privileged access to very real opportunities for those who are resolved to do so.
How to improve women's networking
Today, women can join specifically female networks such as Lean In Circles, WoGiTech, StartHer, Women in Sales, the JFD connect Club, GEF (Grandes Ecoles au Féminin) and the emergence of these groups of women leaders, women's professional associations or mentoring circles is a concrete response to the question of egalitarian networking.
However, it is just as essential for women to take part in mixed networking events and to bring about a change in mentality. Because while networking is an essential lever for women's professional development, there are still challenges to be faced.
Ambition, assertiveness and the ability to cultivate a network should no longer be seen as essentially masculine qualities, but rather as gender-neutral.
Companies, organisations and institutions that support the inclusion of women in influential circles, clubs and networks contribute to a fairer and more prosperous working environment for all.
Networking, a tool for professional equality.
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