It happened again yesterday when I attended a multi-chamber women’s networking event. A couple of hundred women and about a dozen men. It has always fascinated me that at almost every woman’s event I have participated in during the past few decades there’s always the token male or three. Not that I mind, just curious.
I’ve never attended an event that has been sponsored by a men’s business group and attended primarily by men. (I do remember board of directors’ meetings when I was in my 20s and public relations director for a multi-hospital association … those 20 some “older” males and me.) Then again there aren’t that many men’s groups in chambers, etc. I do get an inkling though what it must have been like when I speak at a certain private club in Chicago that used to be men only and women’s bathrooms are not on every floor!
Before the event started I had a chance to ask one man why. He said the networking opportunities were better than with a roomful of men. They’d be talking about sports and their businesses. He missed only current events, the third in men’s trio of favorite small talk topics. He added that women talk about many different things and can be better networkers.
Men will you help me? Why at tables of ten do you want to be the only man? What attracts you to primarily women’s networking events?