Den enda likheten mellan könsblandade och kvinnliga nätverk är att det serveras bulle och kaffe : En studie om betydelsen av kvinnors relationer till professionella nätverk

Sammanfattning: Our society has faced monumental changes and therefore our working life has changed as well. We are now in the twentieth first century and still our labor market is gender-segregated. Today networking is an important part of working life and one cannot emphasize enough the importance of having good connections in your network. Networking is now seen as an important tool when it comes to your career. In the past networking has been the men’s arena and it has almost been seen as a male institution. Women networks have now emerged and one can see more and more women engaging together. But how does it really appear in real life? In our survey we have been interviewing 6 women leaders all engaging in several professional networks. We have asked them how they use their networks, both their women-only networks and the gender-mixed. But above all we have been interested in knowing how the women support each other and whether the women are helping each other career wise. Our theoretical framework has it is focus in gender research but we have also been helped by leader management literature. Our wish is to give a comprehensive understanding. The social structures will follow through the paper. Our hope is that networking can help lift women so that we can get a more equal gender balance among leaders on the Swedish labor market. In our analysis and discussion we have been able to identify that networking in general is of great importance to the interviewed women in our survey. Gender-mixed and women-only networks are complementary. It is noticeable that women use them in different ways. The women-only networks have a tendency of relational characteristics and are used as a support function. The gender-mixed networks are seen upon as more rational and are used in a more business like way. But one can also see that the women consider the male and gender-mixed networks as easier to be a part of. And based on the results we have also identified that the gender system has a big impact on the women’s relations between each other. As mentioned before networking in general is an important tool career wise. And the results show that the women agree with that. At the same time they stress that the women-only network are without power. Which means, that if you want to climb in your career you will have to join the male or gender mixed networks because they are the once with the power.