Downtown Working  Share this: By: Elana Centor Elana Centor
Call it 'Network Envy'  Ask some women why they haven't achieved
the same pay-levels and executive positions as men and chances
are they'll mention the "Good Old Boys Network."  Man, oh, man,
that is some powerful tool. From many women's point of view,
that Good Old Boys Network is the bane of our existence. It's
impenetrable. No matter how much we want to figure it out, we
won't; and no matter how much we want to duplicate it, we can't.
Yet, the Good Old Boys Network isn't a formal system. Unlike
women's networking groups, Good Old Boys don't hold regular
meetings or have initiation fees or dues. What they have is an
attitude, a tradition, a way of conducting business that seems
genetically imprinted in male DNA and thus forever out of reach
of the 9-5 working gal.  Call it "Network Envy," but when it
comes to power and results, women, like the observer in the
infamous diner scene in "When Harry Met Sally" said, "would like
what they're having."