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Success Is Correlated With Hanging Out With Your Significant Other

Women who have a strong female support network are more successful in their careers, according to a new report from researchers at Northwestern University. The study found that women who had larger, female-dominated social networks were 2.5 times more likely to be hired than women who had small social networks or mostly male friends.

The researchers followed seven hundred recent college graduates, both male and female, and looked into the social habits of women who were hired for leadership positions after college. The women who maintained strong connections with other women were more likely to get ahead in their careers.

“More than 75 percent of high-ranking women maintained a female-dominated inner circle or strong ties to two or three women with whom they communicated frequently,” the researchers wrote of their findings. “Such an inner circle can provide trustworthy, gender-relevant information about job cultures and social support, which are very important to women in male-dominated settings.”

Women don’t necessarily need friends in high places to get ahead, the study found. Maintaining friendships with colleagues and having a few close female allies is all it takes.

“You don’t need to ‘friend’ the head of the PTO or the leader of your regional professional organization to reap the rewards of female connectivity,” Better Homes and Gardens reported. “Stay in touch with the women in your world however that feels most authentic to you. That may be by sending the occasional funny postcard to your former cubicle mate, hosting a chocolate tasting for the ladies in your neighborhood, or tagging a college bestie in a (flattering) Throwback Thursday photo online.”