Anou N Khot is the Managing Partner of Rely Services Inc.
The most valuable career skill in 2025 isn’t just excellence—I believe it’s the ability to show your excellence. And the best way to do that? A strong network that amplifies your achievements.
Networking is vital to personal and professional growth. A broad and diverse network opens up access to funding and resources, creates spaces for new ideas and provides unexpected opportunities to collaborate and share information. However, in my experience, women—especially women of racial and ethnic minorities—face unique dynamics that can make networking more difficult compared to their male counterparts.
Empowering women minority entrepreneurs means building supportive networks, fostering a sense of community and driving systemic change.
Why Networking Is Different For Women
It’s normal to feel nervous or intimidated at a networking event, especially if you are new to an industry or consider yourself an introvert. Networking is a skill, and it takes practice to feel comfortable putting yourself out there when connecting with new people. However, women of racial and ethnic minorities often face additional barriers when networking.
Many networking events and professional circles are still male-dominated spaces, especially in industries such as high-tech or finance. Thus, women minority entrepreneurs may face barriers shaped by both racial and gender biases. It can often be difficult to find networks that address these intersectional needs, and there may be fewer role models or mentors who can act as guides when navigating professional relationships.
Further, networking inherently requires self-promotion and confidence, but women can face backlash for appearing too self-assured, ambitious or aggressive. This adds a layer of complexity to networking by requiring women to constantly manage perceptions each time they engage with someone.
Finally, women must also juggle their professional ambitions with societal expectations around caregiving and family roles. Finding time to attend networking events and nurture professional relationships—while also building a business and balancing personal obligations—can be exhausting and adds an additional burden for women entrepreneurs.
How Networking Events Can Provide More Opportunities
Networking events and entrepreneurial spaces have a role to play in breaking down these barriers and creating more inclusive spaces. The good news is that event organizers can take some simple steps to make women feel welcomed and to provide the resources and support women need to be successful.
1. Ensure diverse representation.
Organize events with a balanced representation of diverse participants. This starts at the top by ensuring that women of racial and ethnic minorities are represented in leadership positions and included in decision-making processes.
From there, invite women and other minorities to participate as speakers, panelists and moderators. Bring in participants from different industries, backgrounds and experiences who can inspire new ideas and provide fresh perspectives to important questions.
When diverse voices are highlighted, it demonstrates that entrepreneurship is open to everyone and helps to foster an environment of inclusivity.
2. Facilitate mentorship and sponsorship opportunities.
Mentorship and sponsorship are invaluable for entrepreneurs, offering a combination of strategic insight, emotional support and professional development. They help entrepreneurs develop critical business skills, access funding and overcome challenges as their business evolves. Increased mentorship can lead to higher success rates for women of color and provide a powerful source of inspiration in spaces where they may feel underrepresented.
Networking events can facilitate mentorship programs that pair women minority entrepreneurs with experienced mentors and sponsors. Event organizations can work to connect women with mentors who understand their challenges and align with their goals, values and industry.
3. Promote intersectionality and address systemic biases.
Systemic biases can unintentionally perpetuate barriers and prevent women from gaining full access to opportunities. This could impact their ability to secure funding, form partnerships or attract new customers. Women of racial and ethnic minorities can also face overlapping biases that lead to questions of their authority and competence.
Intersectionality acknowledges that there are multiple layers of oppression that need to be addressed to overcome these barriers. It also recognizes that women entrepreneurs are not a monolithic group with identical needs but instead made up of various subgroups that face these challenges differently in their personal and professional lives.
Networking events can create specific programming based around these diverse needs. They can provide workshops and training for event organizers, speakers and participants on how to recognize unconscious biases and discrimination and address these to create a more inclusive and respectful environment.
4. Prioritize access to funding and skill-building resources.
Access to funding is one of the most significant barriers for minority-led businesses. Financial support helps level the playing field, and ensuring capital sources are equitable and available to diverse entrepreneurs is key to helping them scale.
Consider partnering with financial institutions, investors or venture capitalists who prioritize diversity to create targeted funding opportunities specifically for women. Next, offer capacity and skill-building programs that are focused on relevant topics for women. These could include fundraising, marketing, leadership or navigating the challenges of scaling a business.
By equipping entrepreneurs with the necessary skills and providing access to funding opportunities, networking events and other entrepreneurial spaces can help build self-sufficiency and enable women to grow and sustain their businesses.
5. Foster collaboration and inclusive spaces.
Collaboration, rather than competition, can help women thrive. Collaboration reduces the feelings of isolation that can occur when women feel that they must compete alone. Inclusive environments encourage women to reach out, share knowledge and access resources that might otherwise be unavailable.
Entrepreneurial events can create spaces where women and other minorities can connect with each other, allies and advocates who support diverse entrepreneurs. Host events or create dedicated sessions specifically for minority-led businesses so that they can discuss their unique challenges and foster a sense of belonging. These smaller, focused groups can create an environment where people are more willing to share and support one another.
Networking events can bring together individuals from different industries, backgrounds and experiences. By investing in the wider community, that includes women minority entrepreneurs, you can create a legacy of empowerment that breaks the cycles of exclusion and underrepresentation.
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