Networking Her Way : A qualitative study of how top-position women in the financial sector experience the role of Women-Only-Networks (WONs) for female career progression

Abstract: Engagement in networking is described as a facilitator for an individual's career progression. Research has shown how men tend to benefit from informal networking, and difficulties appearing for women to penetrate these male informal networks. Formal networks have thereby arisen as a countermeasure, and more precisely, women-only-networks, which have been argued to serve as a means for women in their career. However, there is limited knowledge of the experienced role women-only-networks provide for female career progression. Through qualitative research with an inductive approach, top-position women in the financial industry were interviewed. The study’s results show how women-only-networks work as a facilitator for women's career progression, both through soft values such as providing women with a community of relatedness, as well as career enhancing resources such as recruitment possibilities. Further, the results display how women-only-networks serve a collective purpose for women as they facilitate change of existing gender structures in the industry. The overall conclusion is hence that women-only-networks have an equal worth in themselves for female career progression as mens’ informal networks have for male career progression.