 In the second half of the twentieth century, U.S. advocates for workplace equity popularized the term and concept of networking as part of a larger social capital lexicon—which also includes terms such as glass ceiling, role model, mentoring, and gatekeeper—serving to identify and address the problems barring non-dominant groups from professional success.Mainstream business literature subsequently adopted the terms and concepts, promoting them as pathways to success for all career climbers.In 1970 these terms were not in the general American vocabulary; by the mid-1990s they had become part of everyday speech.