REVIEWS

Networking: Whys and Hows

By J. Rainbrook

Kleiman, Carol. Women's Networks. Ballantine Books, 1980, $2.95.

Welch, Mary-Scott. Networking. Warner Books, 1981, $2.95.

Webster defines networking as "a system, etc., of interconnected or cooperating individuals”. Women's networking, in one of its practical applications, is defined as interconnected or cooperating women for the purpose of advancing each other toward each individual's career goals. As such, it is the women's version of the "old boys' network," the casual exchange of information between men over lunch, at the club, on the golf course.

Networking is happening all across the country, both in formal associations, such as the Women's Political Caucus, and more informal luncheon meetings and phone contacts. This phenomenon has been the subject of recent articles in the New York Times Magazine and even the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

It certainly sounds like an effective way to make career contacts. The only question is, how? It is this question that Carol Kleiman's Women Networking and Mary-Scott Welch's Networking address.

These two books are considerably different in their. approaches to the subject. Kleiman's book concentrates on what networks can do for women and what kinds of networks have been developed around the country. Almost two-thirds of her book is devoted to the different types of networks. It is written in the manner of "How Suzy Smith found happiness and a good job as president of Fishhook University through networking". I found this continual listing of success stories uninteresting and repetitious after the first chapter. Being a realist, I also found myself asking, “What about the failures?”—a topic which Kleiman doesn't touch on.

I found the "how to network" question, which she covers in one chapter, to be the most useful part of the book. It covers such topics as what size group do you need, what is the main focus of the group, when will it meet, whom do you want to be a part of it and how do you get them to join, should you have dues and a formal organization, and some examples of how both a small and a large women's network began.

The last third provides a listing of every conceivable kind of network, with addresses and phone numbers where they can be contacted. Like all such listings, it is incomplete or suffers from being outdated, if one judges by the Cleveland listings. For example, the Cuyahoga Women's Political Caucus is missing and so are all of the newer groups specifically formed to do networking, such as Hardhatted Women, the Women's Business Owners Association, Women in Sales and Marketing, and Women in Communication. For someone wondering where to begin, however, the listings could provide a start.

Mary-Scott Welch's book, Networking, on the whole seems more useful. She begins with a discussion of the political and social realities that make women's networking necessary in the first place. Throughout the book, she discusses not only how the male-dominated system does us in, but more importantly, how we as individual women do ourselves in.

Her information on how to network and how to develop networks is detailed, nicely balanced between specific information and examples of techniques that worked. She also talks about what not to do when you're networking. For example, if you give a woman another woman's name to contact, don't stop there. Call and tell her “You might be getting a call from Jane X. I gave her your name because she

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was interested in the realities of being a public relations director before she decides to apply for any positions".

A particularly useful piece of advice was not just to ask questions of the person with whom you are networking, but also volunteer information about. yourself, your own interests and ideas. This effectively takes some of the pressure off the other woman so that at the end of the interview, both feel as though they have contributed and received information instead of one feeling "drained dry".

Another point of networking etiquette she emphasizes is, after receiving a referral from a woman, to let her know how it turned out. Also, if the referral could turn up a lucrative business contract for your firm, it might be appropriate to discuss whether she expects a commission or finder's fee before making the contact.

Welch's book covers the same questions about net-

working as Kleiman's but in more detail, including purely mechanical means to keep track of your networking contacts so they remain useful and up-todate. She also lists networking groups, but her list is even more limited than Kleiman's.

Networking is alive and working well for thousands of women. It can work for you as well as long as you don't expect it to work miracles for you. Welch's book will provide more information specifically on what you can do to help yourself, how to network, and how to think about yourself before you network so that you get the most out of your networking contacts. Kleiman's book has more emphasis on who is networking and where.

And a postscript for those of you in social service and women's organizations: many of the techniques and issues discussed in these two books for furthering individual career goals are equally applicable and effective for furthering your organization's goals.

Childbearing Rights Booklet

For Ourselves, Our Families, and Our Future: The Struggle for Childbearing Rights. Childbearing Rights Information Project. Boston, The Red Sun Press, 1981. 125 pages.

By Johnnie R. Lambert

"Childbearing rights are important and essential for women, children, and men. In the United States, the economic crisis is worsening and the government's response is to cut back on welfare

NO FORCED STERILIZATION

benefits and social services, and to hack away at the gains of women and minorities. A growing rightwing movement takes advantage of the country's climate

of the opinions of the "Moral Majority" on our lives.

The book contains documented case histories of women who have been forced into unwanted pregnancies, "incidental" or experimental sterilizations, or who have experienced inadequate health care for themselves or for their children. It also told of gay women and men who have been denied custody of their own children simply because of their lifestyles.

I read the pages in this book with mounting anger, mentally listing names of people I know or have read about who have been victimized by the very forces described in Childbearing Rights. Each incidence reinforces the necessity for an active movement against government abuse of families.

This publication serves as a spur to all those who care to join in the battle for the rights of free choice. As the government has declared war on women and children, we must declare war on those who would further oppress us in the name of “God, Home and Country". This is the message put forth to every reader of the volume: childbearing rights are for everyone, and the struggle to secure them has just begun.

of recession and confusion to develop its base while I Do! I Do!" Charms

attacking the rights of women, minorities and gay people".

On Tuesday, February 10, 1982, the President of the United States announced the nomination of Rev. B. Samuel Hart of Philadelphia to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Rev. Hart's first remarks were to state his opposition to forced busing for desegregation of schools, abortion, gay rights, and the ERA.

With this nomination, the President has demonstrated his intent to decimate the efforts of those who have worked so diligently to guarantee the rights of American citizens to live uninhibited by repressive governmental controls over their individual lives.

At this tumultuous time, the Childbearing Rights Information Project has published a slim volume of thought-provoking information. This powerful book, begun in 1978 and researched for three years prior to publication, explores the childbearing rights concept and presents the reader with a wellinformed, well-organized description of this struggle, which is escalating into a full-scale war against government control of our families.

We must be guaranteed the right to choice, the right to bear and raise children, and the right to safe, legal and accessible abortion. We must protect ourselves from sterilization abuse and the inflicting

“I

By Mary Walsh

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, in a departure from its usual heavily dramatic fare, is currently presenting "I Do! I Do!," a two-character musical study of fifty years of a marriage. Based on a play written decades ago, some of the concepts are dated and the characters severely stereotyped, but the overall effect of the piece is charming, thanks largely to touching and unsentimentalized performances by Carol WeissFulton and Thomas Fulton.

What I found particularly interesting was the fact that, probably unconsciously, the emphasis of the play is on the strength of the wife. It is she whose personality grows and develops; it is she who is human, sensible and believable while her husband spouts pompous platitudes and changes little in his selfishness and self-importance until near the end.

Although there are many distrurbing moments for feminists in "I Do! I Do!"-notably the wife feeling that her life is over when the children marry and leave home-the concepts portrayed are still very valid to many women in this country. To feminists, "I Do! I Do!" can be viewed with sympathy and pleasure as a period piece, and as such, it is a success. The play runs through March 13, and is well worth seeing.