Sharon Vosmek: Network Barriers

So the question was about women aping men. And quite honestly, I'll go a step further and say the programs that encourage this, because I cannot tell you how many corporate executives I sit with who tell me that their program for women's leadership is to help them know how to dress, help them know how to talk, help them know how to do this. I find it so offensive. Women are not broken. I refuse to not wear my red dress and my heels to this talk just because most VCs would show up in their khakis and their blue shirt. I like my red dress. Never mind that. I had to get the mic back there. That was a little bit hard, but you know what I mean. I actually like being a girl. It's a pretty cool space. We have some strengths that are pretty darn awesome, if I can say so myself. But we spend so much time redefining what success looks like. So let me tell you what success looked like when I was four. Four was I was going to be the best ping pong player ever. Okay? By the age of 12, my dad was telling me, my dad, who by the way, my dad's pretty awesome, told me I shouldn't beat boys because it hurts their self esteem. I bet every woman in this room has had some sort of stupid advice like that. And if I ever hope to have a boyfriend, I da da da da da. Age 12. Anyway, I'm pretty good at ping pong, but this stuff isn't easy stuff. And that's why we go to the simple stuff. Post industrial revolution was white male, single head of household. And we keep thinking that the models that were created out of that somehow are going to magically overnight support dual income households with two kids, a nanny, soccer, all the things that go with that. When is there going to be an executive that actually stands up and says, you know what, I get it that in the US today the number of people I will employ who are single head of household is diminishing rapidly and is definitely in the minority. And therefore I gotta think about the workplace differently. I have yet to see that corporation stand up and do it. Because I think what they'd have to address is that their challenge of getting women into the executive suites is about networks. And men and women aren't in the same business networks. Those deals are done over the golf course. They are not done when a headhunter comes in and says, oh, you come into the executive suite, you come be the see whatever of our company. It doesn't happen via HR people. That happens over a beer, over a martini on the golf course. And until we recognize the barriers of networks, we won't get past it.