Marjolein Dennissen

45 Networking for equality? as assertive, political and strategic as men if they want to be successful. With their activities, the women’s network strives to empower their members professionally and enable them to follow the male models of career success. Although the main focus of the board members is on individual women, they argue that it is important to involve men in their activities. We involve men, absolutely, absolutely. (…) I am not saying that it starts with that, but it is a combination. The women have to work on it themselves, we [women, eds.] have to really do something instead of whining. And second, there are the men, who have to be aware of what they are doing. That they indeed hire a lookalike. (Kate) As such, Kate does not solely focus on the empowerment of individual women, but also on awareness among men. She questions the behavior of men, for instance in recruitment and selection processes. By involving men, she wants to raise awareness that male managers tend to hire “lookalikes”. The board members believe men to be instrumental in bringing about change. Individual men need to be equipped too, but men need a different kind of intervention geared to awareness of their hiring preferences, not the behavioral assimilation required of women. Drawing on a discourse of individual career responsibility, the board members highlight the empowerment of individual women. This discourse corresponds to “equip the woman” or “liberal individualism” (Meyerson & Kolb, 2000, p. 560). Although the board members do attempt to involve men and to raise awareness about recruitment and selection processes, the male models of career success and networking are never challenged but taken for granted as the standard for all employees. Ethnic minority network The ethnic minority network started as an interpersonal network of one employee with an ethnic minority background and has gradually developed into an official employee network. There are different, overlapping goals mentioned by various board members during the interviews and formulated in the network’s annual plan. The overarching goal of this network is to connect employees throughout the organization. This entails both connections among employees with an ethnic minority background as well as between all employees, regardless of their background. I distinguish several subgoals: career development, for employees to “feel at home within [the organization]”, and to increase visibility and create awareness for ethnic diversity. First, the career development of employees with an ethnic minority background stagnates at middle management positions. To support the career development of members, the network organizes discussions, workshops and professional training sessions. For example, a training about body language, where participants learned how to “sell” themselves. This emphasizes