As the world’s largest collective of women in business, we understand that an intersectional approach is needed when it comes to networking. We sat down with our membership sales manager, Karisa Lundberg, on her experience of career networking as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Karisa has worked in sales for 13 years and is passionate about sport, and women's and lesbian rights. 

Let people surprise you

Karisa acknowledges that she is fortunate to live in the UK where her experience is that attitudes are very accepting. She shares that even from a young age she’s always lived her life very out in the open and she has always thought it was really important to normalise the fact she has a same-sex partner throughout her career. She says that “even in situations where I've been a bit hesitant or guarded, I've almost always found that people have surprised me!” 

“One great example is a career changing meeting I had many years ago with someone I didn't know well, but could be working very closely with moving forward. What I knew of this individual, combined with my own biases, led me to be concerned they may not be very accepting of a lesbian. I didn't want to end up in a situation where, a year down the line, I found my working environment to be intolerable, so I did casually make reference to my same-sex partner during this conversation. He didn't bat an eye, and we moved ahead working together. Down the line, this man slowly and carefully disclosed to me he had a male partner, but that they still had to live quite closeted due to religious, social, and legal barriers in their home nation.”

Karisa explains that she’s happy she pushed past any biases, and allowed her colleague the opportunity to let his words and actions speak for themselves, because “we were able to form an incredibly close working relationship”, and a space that allowed him to be himself, openly.

Karisa answers some questions on networking:

What makes a truly inclusive employer? 

For me, the hallmark of being an inclusive employer is to provide the same consistent opportunity as my other colleagues, and to not mark me out for different treatment because of my sexual orientation. Conversely, I've heard a lot of horror stories from friends about a more hostile work environment year round, but a lot of resources [are] pooled into ERGs [Employee Resource Groups] or activities around Pride month. When your company culture at the core isn't inclusive, these sorts of activities seem to have the opposite effect as intended - it doesn't match up!

What specific challenges have you faced in networking? 

I've found the networking element to sometimes be incredibly challenging in the rainbow spaces. It's not uncommon that I will often be one of only a few women in the room, and the men really do seem to dominate the space. The dynamics in these events can be very…complex. And, while I've had some incredibly fruitful conversations and met some wonderful men, I find it frustrating that so many events boast about how 'diverse' their events are without noticing there's no women in the room!

I've found that over the years I've ended up gravitating much more towards general women's events and networking groups, not necessarily focused on anything tailored to the rainbow community. I'm a woman, first and foremost, so I tend to have many more overlapping experiences and commonalities with other women. As a bonus, I've regularly found many other gay women in these spaces that I've been able to connect with. I've realised that women's networking groups ARE the spaces lesbian and bisexual women seem to gravitate to now, which wasn't always the case, and I'm hearing the exact same sentiments from lesbian specific networking groups these days. 

What advice would you give to other gay individuals looking to navigate networking in their workplaces?

First and foremost, it's about being a professional in a professional environment. Your sexual orientation is just one part of who you are, and what you bring to the table is a myriad of experiences, insights, and knowledge you have. I'm not a big believer in bringing your 'whole self' to your job, but rather bringing your best professional self to your workplace, combined with honesty. When you do that, you'll find that very few people will ever care about whether you're gay.

How do you envision the future of workplace networking for lesbian or bisexual women? What changes would you like to see?

That's a really hard one but, ultimately, I'd just love to see us at a point where it almost doesn't matter. I actually think we're well on the way to that. I'd love these spaces to be an 'extra perk', something voluntary that is nice to have, on the basis that representation is really commonplace, and women are comfortable and able to be open in their workplace.

 I'd also love to see more general rainbow networking spaces to be more inclusive of women, but I definitely feel (personally) that's gone the other direction over the past decade.

In what ways do you think lesbian representation in leadership roles impacts networking and career opportunities for others in the community?

 I think it's doubly difficult for lesbians to find that representation in the world. There are so few women in leadership positions in general, and just given how much of a minority lesbians are, the role models are far and few between. If you can't see it, you can't be it! I've witnessed first-hand how being open in the workplace has given other younger women the opportunity to come out, and feel comfortable.