Women on the verge of a breakthrough:networking among entrepreneurs in the United States and Italy

The literature on work, marriage and the family, and organized social life irrtplies that women are embedded in different personal networks than men, with potential conseauences for their rates of business formation, sirvival, and growth. We tested this implication by studying the personal networks of potential and active entrepreneurs in the Research Triangle Area, North Carolina and Milan, Italy. Instead of substantial differences in the networks of men and women, we were surprised by the degree of similarity we discovered, within and between countries. Networking activity is very similar within each country, as is network density. However, the sex composition of networks differs dramatically by sex in both countries. In some respects, the gap between the male and female worlds appears to have dosed substantially, but the personal networks of women in both countries still include few men.