Nancy Behrman is the founder of Behrmanpr, a public relations firm. By thinking outside of the box, she has developed a public relations firm that has powerful clients, such as Burt’s Bees, Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Oakley and Creed. Behrman believes that women should help other women in the business world for the good of all.
The following are some important reasons why women in business should network and help each other.
To Help Each Other Overcome Gender Bias –
One would hope, in 2019, that gender bias would be dead and buried, but this is obviously not so. Forbes Magazine cited some anecdotal evidence and a major study that showed there was a bias in calling people in for interviews who had male-sounding names and Caucasian-sounding names. Some of the anecdotal evidence cited included women who changed their first names on their resumes to some derivative of their last name to make it sound as if the candidate for the job was a man. These women were able to get in interviews with their male-sounding names but were not having much luck with their given names.
The Harvard Business Review did a study that showed women benefited from a small network of other women who could provide them private advice about the cultural landscape of a particular employer. This helped the women with such networks maneuver into and within these companies, and it helped them in negotiations. The private advice helped the women overcome the gender biases that were present.
Otherwise, It is Divide and Conquer –
The Harvard Business Review found that women who first rose into leadership positions in business felt as if they had to display male qualities in order to succeed. Today, women business leaders feel they must manifest both female and male qualities in order to be perceived as competent managers.
Nancy Behrman found that she had to actively root out competitiveness in her successful public relations firm. Instead, she advocates for creatively bouncing ideas off of colleagues.
It Will Help Us Get Products That Work for Us –
The Hult International Business School in Boston recently hosted a webinar of women entrepreneurs. One of the key findings was that women make 85 percent of consumer purchases, yet only 11 percent of advertising creative directors are women. Not surprisingly, women feel that the marketplace does not serve them very well.
We Can Help Others Get Their Feet in the Door –
Hult also found that women in the U.S. have only 24 percent of U.S. STEM jobs. There is a push now for organizations to help young girls aspire to STEM careers because those jobs tend to be more plentiful and lucrative.
We Can Help Create More Women-Owned Businesses, Adding More Jobs to the Economy –
Inc. Magazine found that women today own about 40 percent of all of the businesses in the U.S. The problem is that most of these business enterprises have the woman owner as their sole employee. The more we support other women in business, the more we will find larger enterprises founded by women. Diversity breeds creativity.
Also, these small, women-owned enterprises can help provide a backbone that will keep more people in our country employed when the next recession hits. The reality is that many of these new enterprises began in response to the horrid labor market during the Great Recession, an economic downturn that many have still not recovered from.
Nancy Behrman of Behrmanpr believes that there is a power in women networking, so they can bounce ideas off of each other and provide inside information that helps more of us break through the glass ceiling