Social Media for Women?

A fact that I expect to be fairly undisputable is that women are underrepresented in Executive and on Board level.

Even though this has been a hot topic, at least since I started business school in the mid-80's. I would like to argue that the development has been painfully slow, particulary in the last few years. Still 2009, in Sweden, less than one out of five board members is a woman.

Instead of looking for increased competitiveness through variance, the old boys networks have essentially continued to recruit from the old boys networks.

My frustration over the lack of equality, variance and, most importantly, that business and society is missing most of the potential contribution from the smart, over-achieving women I have met over the years, has now gotten to a point I never thought I would reach. I am now FOR Affirmative Action (Sv. kvotering) to company boards, simply because it might be a way to finally prime some kind of long over-due shift in this area. Norway has already passed such a law.

A common argument for no change is that there are not enough competent women around - but how likely is that?

One company argued "we would like to see more women on our board, but we go strictly go for the most competent individuals, notwithstanding the sex, - that is why 90% of our board members are men" - but how likely is that?

In order to prove that argument wrong, Swedish Media Queen Anna Bråkenhielm recently pulled together a list of almost 600 female execs, sent it to nomination committees and published it in her magazine Passion for Business.

Today, the Swedish government through ministers Nyamko Sabuni and Maud Olofsson sent a letter to the chairmen in the nominating committees in all companies noted on the stock exchange.

Minister Sabuni argues that the problems lies in the fact that the nominating committees have too narrow networks (the old boys again).

I would like to reverse her comment and add another variable/explanation.

My observation is that women are less prone to participate in networking of the male style, lunches with no specific business goal, football games and - of increasing importance, Social Networking like LinkedIn. When I talked to Anna Bråkenhielm about the subject she admitted to having a LI profile and a small number of contacts but, just as a majority of my female friends and associates, she is not actually using the tool, since updating and networking is competing for time with business and family. Furthermore, ministers Sabuni and Olofsson do not have LI profiles at all. Here I find it appropriate to add that I first learned of Senator Obamas existence as he posted some news on his campaign and asked for comments on LinkedIn..

But even if women tend to prioritize other things in life (perhaps work and family) rather that just networking around, recent research shows that women active in Social Networks actually are doing a better job than men (i.e. able to interact with more people simultaneously) - why am I not surprised! http://xeeurl.com/A0602

Is increased Social Media networking for women a way to speed up the process so that businesses can get the boost in competence and variance that would be the result of increased female board representation? If the answer is yes, what would make women spend more time networking?