Do women really need another networking, mentoring and development group, asks Alanna Gallagher

WOMEN IN business can work up to 16 hours a day at senior executive level. They need to engage with other like-minded individuals, but are time-poor.

Pamela Jeffrey, founder of Women's Executive Network (WXN), says women hold 41 per cent of management and ownership positions in Ireland, a figure expected to increase to 44 per cent, or 131,560 women, by 2012.

WXN, a Canadian organisation that offers networking, mentoring and professional development programmes to senior, executive-minded women, launched in Ireland last month.

"By this time, 55 per cent of the business, financial and legal professions are also expected to be women," says Jeffrey, citing a report by the ESRI's Peter Lunn and Roger Fox of Fás on How the Irish Workforce will look in 2012. "This expanding group needs leadership and strategic counsel." How? Through breakfast meetings, peer-to-peer and protegee mentoring programmes.

Sisters have been networking for themselves for quite some time in Ireland, as WXN joins what is perceived to be a crowded stage of groups targeting business and professional women. Several organisations - including Network Ireland; Dublin City Enterprise Board's Network for Women; Network Dublin; Dublin Business Women's Skillnet and the International Women's Forum - which has Minister for Health Mary Harney and President Mary McAleese as members - offer networking and mentoring opportunities.

Do we need another genderspecific network? Publisher Norah Casey thinks we do. There's still just a handful of women at board level, she says. The managing director of Harmonia Publishing sits on several boards and is a member of two women's networks. She belongs to the International Women's Forum which, she says, is very business-focused and primarily for women in business and public life.

She is also a founding member of the Women's Irish Network, an organisation based in London whose purpose is to get members together with other women.

By and large, men have generations of networking advantage over women, Jeffrey observes. This advantage starts in school and leads into their professional network. "Women are much newer to this. We don't have the same networking history and don't realise how important it is to establish and build a network outside the workplace."

In your 30s, you need to realise that to succeed and climb the ladder you need to build or create a brand for yourself.

"Networking is about raising your profile to the point that you and your talents are well recognised, beyond the realm of your workplace," she says.

"You become so well networked in other companies that, as a result, you become more valuable to your employer."

Miriam Ahern runs Align Management Solutions and the Dublin City Enterprise Board's Network for Women, which has been in operation for more than five years and has about 120 members.

"In today's business environment, you are known by your reputation. That's where referrals will come from," Ahern says. "The Network for Women is an opportunity to generate new business."

Ahern disagrees with Jeffrey on women being at a natural disadvantage. "Women are natural networkers and have been doing so informally since a very early age," she says. "They relate to each other better than their male counterparts."

While the unique selling point of the Network for Women is its focus on enterprise support, the organisation can also offer financial assistance and mentoring services.

Men's and women's rationales are very different, observes Maeve Donovan, managing director of The Irish Timesand a WXN member. "There's a whole lot of informal networking men do, golf and trips to rugby and football matches," she says.

"Women almost have to formally plan to network to give X amount of time to building contacts. If they're doing that in isolation, it's a lot of additional work to their load."

What can women learn from men? The importance of laying out a case in a non-emotional way, says Jeffrey. "Your voice and tone is very important," she says. "Women have a different pitch to their voices and you need to be self-aware, to be able to speak in a moderate, fact-based way."

Network Ireland is one of the State's oldest women's networks. It is celebrating its 25th year and has between 500 and 600 members in 12 counties. There are four meetings a year at national executive level, while each county meets once a month. This sisterhood offers business advice as well as a social platform for networking.

Women are competing for roles in business that they wouldn't have 20 years ago, says the network's president, Maria Groake, who runs Stradbally Farm Services. "It is also good to get out of a man's world," she adds. Working in farm services, most of her clients are men.

Mairéad Crillo, chairwoman of the Dublin Women's Skillnet Group and managing director of Environmental Business Advice, says the women's network is a stepping stone designed to give women entrepreneurs the confidence to go out into the world of business.

A lot of women lack confidence, she adds. "We offer training to learn the skills you need for business, and how to sell yourself."

Jeffrey says what is perceived to be free time has to be used wisely. "Free time is working time and crucial to developing a job strategy.They say it's who you know. I believe it's both what you know and who you know."