女性在男權世界獲取權力的新方式
Call it the New Girls' Network. At professional services firms in fields like law, accounting, and advertising, the partners who control the biggest share of revenues wield the most influence. For those on their way up, getting there has traditionally meant working closely with senior partners on key client accounts, with the aim of taking them over when the partner retires.
姑且把它稱爲“新女生網絡
”(New Girls' Network)吧。在法律、會計和廣告等領域的專業服務公司，掌控最大份額收入的合夥人通常影響力最強。對於一心追求進步的專業人士來說，抵達職業高峯的傳統途徑是，與高級合夥人緊密合作，一起經營關鍵客戶，目的是熬到高級合夥人退休後順利接管這些資源。
For women, that happens less often. So female fast-trackers have found a different strategy: rainmaking, or tapping their networks outside the firm to recruit new clients -- many of whom are women, too.
對於女性來說，這種情況很少發生。不過，雄心勃勃的女性職員已經發現了一條全新的晉升策略：造雨(rainmaking)，即利用她們在公司外的網絡招募新客戶——其中許多客戶也是女性。
That's the finding of a new study co-authored by Forrest Briscoe, who teaches management and sociology at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, and published in the current issue of the Journal of Professions and Organization. Firms that want more diversity at the senior partner level, the study says, can increase revenues at the same time by encouraging even more of the rainmaking that many female junior partners already do.
這是一項研究報告的最新發現，發表在本期《行業和組織》(Journal of Professions and Organization) 雜誌上。其執筆人之一是賓夕法尼亞州立大學(Penn State)史密爾商學院(Smeal College of Business)管理學和社會學教授佛利斯特o布里斯科。報告指出，鼓勵女性初級合夥人培養更多的客戶，可以增強高級合夥人層級的多樣性，同時還能夠爲公司帶來更多的收入。
The researchers analyzed detailed data from inside a major corporate law firm from 1993 to 2007. They found that both the inheritance and the rainmaking paths to senior partnership are risky. Hoping to inherit clients from a higher-up usually takes years of work on those accounts, with no guarantee of a payoff if the senior partner then decides to pass the baton to someone else.
研究人員詳細分析了一家大型律師事務所1993年至2007年的內部數據。他們發現，在通往高級合夥人的道路上，繼承客戶資源和培養新客戶都是險招。要想從一位上司手中繼承客戶資源，往往需要花費數年來經營這些客戶，而且不一定能夠獲得回報，因爲這位高級合夥人可能會將接力棒傳遞給別人。
Rainmaking is even riskier, the study says, in part because it takes just as much time and effort but isn't billable unless and until a new client signs on. So a junior partner who invests in building and cultivating a strong outside network "will risk appearing less productive and profitable" in the short run.培養新客戶的風險更大，部分原因是它需要耗費同樣多的時間和精力，但這些付出是不計費的，除非一位新客戶願意簽約。所以說，如果一位初級合夥人竭盡全力構造和培育一個強大的外部網絡，他（她）“在短期內的工作效率和盈利能力很可能面臨下降風險。”
Even so, for women, rainmaking is often the only option, for reasons that are familiar by now. Most senior partners, and their clients, are still white males who, left to their own devices, usually take other white males under their wing and groom them as successors.
即便如此，出於衆所周知的理由，培養新客戶往往是女性唯一的選擇。大多數高級合夥人和他們的客戶依然是白人男性。如果讓這些人自主行事，他們往往會庇護其他白人男性，並將其培養成自己的接班人。
"It's not a conscious decision based on discrimination," Briscoe says. Rather, he says, it's a question of what sociologists call homophily, or "a matter of people's 'comfort zones,' where we tend to gravitate toward people who are more like us, or who remind us of our younger selves."
“這並非一種故意歧視女性的決定，”布里斯科說。相反，這是一個被社會學家稱爲同質性的問題，“事關人們的‘舒適區’(comfort zone)”，他說。這種理論認爲，我們往往會被更像自己的人吸引，或是讓你想起年輕時的自己的人。
Luckily for women, homophily's effects operate outside their firms as well as inside. "There are many more women now who are in-house counsel at big companies, or who are in other roles where they're choosing professional services firms for their companies," Briscoe notes, and that often works in female rainmakers' favor.
幸運的是，對於女性來說，同質性效應不單出現在公司內部，公司外部也一樣。布里斯科指出，“現在有越來越多的女性擔任大公司的內部顧問，或者爲公司選擇專業服務機構之責的其他角色。”這種情況通常對致力於培養新客戶的女性有利。
For firms that want to shake things up and change, for example, how clients get passed down through the ranks, Briscoe has two suggestions. First, he says, "big partnerships don't always look at how clients are inherited. So taking a close look at exactly how those decisions are made would be a good first step."
布里斯科給那些試圖革新（比如，改變客戶資源沿公司等級階梯的分配方式）的公司提供了兩個建議。首先，他說，“大型合夥制公司並非總是關注客戶資源如何被繼承。所以，仔細觀察公司如何做出這些決定，將是一個良好的開端。”
Second, he says, firms might want to support the rainmaking path to senior partnership by allowing more time for networking outside the office. That may well mean recognizing that fewer billable hours now can mean higher revenues, and more women senior partners, down the road.
第二，他說，公司可能會允許初級合夥人花費更多時間建立外部網絡，以支持培養新客戶這條通向高級合夥人的路徑。這可能意味着承認，現在更少的計費時間意味着未來能夠獲得更高的收入，更多的女性高級合夥人。
