graphic by jared
I’ve been thinking about the background research on that McKinsey study of Model Centered Leadership. Particularly the brief mention about how
men tend to build broader, shallower networks than women do and that the networks of men give them a wider range of resources for gaining knowledge and professional opportunities.
Given the very long arm of social networks, it seems as though the internet is helping to level the networking playing field for professional women. Women are definitely engaging online; for instance, 55% of FaceBook users are female.
How do the two relate? I read status updates on a regular basis indicating my friends and acquaintances are connecting with elementary school friends, long last college hall mates, former professors, etc.
Ten years ago, you had no way of keeping track of hundreds of tangential connections that you hold face or name recognition with, but little more. Now you can connect online with just about every person you meet in real time. . . not that you’d want to.
When you’re looking for a new job or a new house or a new boyfriend, your circle of connections has grown that much larger when you connect with people you liked from past chapters of your life, people you’d otherwise have lost touched with, if not for social networking.
Isn’t social networking allowing us all to build broad, shallow networks of acquaintances we can reach out to as needed? This natural evolution of the internet seems to be giving women the tools to be as competitive as men when it comes to networking.
