172 CLEARING THE HURDLES: WOMEN BUILDING HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESSES
• Women are not “dues-paying” members of key business networks.
– Their work experience does not provide them frequent interac-
tion with those who control vital resources and with important
deal brokers.
– Social and cultural norms often preclude women from partici-
pating in networks that mediate access to money and financing.
• Women lack the appropriate social capital to make meaningful
exchanges within business networks.
Let’s look more closely at how business and financial networks
operate, what benefits they offer, who is included, and how transac-
tions are actually made.
Formal Networks
Networks consist of both formal and informal relationships in which
individuals have repeated, noneconomic ...