Is a networking company that is just for professional women an avenue for leveling the playing field in the corporate world? Does your answer change after finding out that the company is called “Girls’ Lounge” and its events include mini-makeovers? If so, why?
In “Networking in the ‘Girls’ Lounge’, Brooks Barnes writes:
In the most basic sense, the Girls’ Lounge is a free space — a hotel penthouse, for instance — where businesswomen can relax and mingle between meetings and seminars. There is fruit to snack on. Hair, nail and makeup experts offer mini-makeovers. Ms. Zalis, assisted by four full-time staff members, sometimes brings in a “confidence coach” to give pep talks. Pink flowers, throw pillows and plush sofas add to the slumber-party feel.
Girls’ Lounge attendees — roughly 5,000 by now, Ms. Zalis estimates — are also encouraged to network and explore business deals, both with one another and with any men who find themselves in their midst. Gail Tifford, for instance, was unable to find a spot at a 2014 convention to discuss business with Stephen Quinn, who was then Walmart’s chief marketing officer, so she asked him to meet her in the Girls’ Lounge.
“There were women in robes with their hair in towels,” Ms. Tifford, vice president for media and digital engagement at Unilever North America, recalled with a laugh. “Stephen and I went out to the terrace and had a very productive one-hour meeting.”
Mr. Quinn, who recently retired from Walmart, wrote in an email that it taught him something important about how women must feel when they are surrounded by men. “It was kind of uncomfortable for me,” he said. “I clearly didn’t fit in and distinctly had a feeling of a lot of eyes on me. Voice in my head: ‘What is he doing here?’ Probably wasn’t true, but my mind went there.”
… As the Girls’ Lounge has grown, landing partners that include Visa and Google (and, at some events, The New York Times), so have Ms. Zalis’s ambitions. Early on, she said, she was simply interested in “the power of the pack”: making women feel like less of a minority at heavily male business events. (Men outnumber women at Davos by more than five to one.) But then she noticed that Girls’ Lounge attendees were having meaningful conversations about sexism at work and how to combat it.
… The Girls’ Lounge definitely has its detractors. While reluctant to publicly criticize another woman, especially one working toward an admirable goal, a half-dozen women I approached — senior media executives, a retired state judge, lawyers — told me that they thought Ms. Zalis was hurting professional women by using the “G word.” “A girl is a juvenile, someone who isn’t ready, and I’ve fought my entire career to avoid being perceived as that,” one Warner Bros. executive said.
Among the other comments: “It sounds like a bathroom”; “Anything that makes us separate from men is harmful”; “I embrace my femininity — I wear dresses to work, I shop on business trips — but if I told my male colleagues that I was headed for the Girls’ Lounge, it would only cement in their minds that I’m not as good as them.”
Even several of Ms. Zalis’s supporters conceded that the Girls’ Lounge took some getting used to. “It’s an unlikely name for what is really going on there,” said Joanna Barsh, a director emeritus at McKinsey & Company. Ms. Barsh added: “Shelley is not making a difference because she’s timid. She’s brazen. This woman is a force of nature — an extraordinary, energized bundle.”
Students: Read the whole article then answer the questions below:
— Do you think the Girls’ Lounge offers a solution to what Ms. Zalis calls the “boys club” in the business world?
— How do you think the article would be different, if at all, had it been written by a woman? Explain.
— What do you think of Ms. Zalis’ decision to “pour on the pink” at the Girls’ Lounge as a show of standing out, not trying to fit in, as she claims she’s been advised to do in the workplace?
— Knowing that Stephen Quinn, who is male, had had a meeting with a woman in the space rented by the Girls’ Lounge suggests that there isn’t a “no men allowed” rule there. How, if at all, does that affect your opinion of the Girls’ Lounge?
— What is your reaction to Mr. Quinn’s description of how he felt when he was there?
Our Student Council member Aleena Ismail suggested this article as a Student Opinion question. She writes:
The Girl’s Lounge has been quite controversial for its use of the word “girl,” its creation of an exclusive space, but mostly its emphasis on women doing stereotypically “girly” things.This article makes me reflect on whether all of these different paths for female empowerment can run parallel or whether they are divisive at a time when women need to come together.
She suggests these questions:
— Do women have to minimize their feminity in order to be taken seriously by men?
— Does offering spaces where women do stereotypically “girly” things such as getting manicures and makeovers enforce traditional gender roles or is it a kind of empowerment?
— Does a space like the Girls’ Lounge exclude women who don’t fit the mold it embraces?
— Is it signficant that this article appears in the Fashion & Style section as opposed to Business Day?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff members, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.