October 31, 2005 10:02 AM

Nail polish and networking?
Posted by Diane Danielsonat 10:02 AM

While I'm all for women networking in whatever format suits them, I still question what message the Globe is sending by putting an article about businesswomen getting their nails done on the front page.

Enough with the Celtics games and cigar bars.

That's what female partners at the law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo were thinking when they planned a networking event exclusively for women. No sports outings, no poker nights, no golf tournaments, no guy talk, no men. Instead, they chose a venue they suspected would be uniquely appealing to the fairer sex: a spa.

So at the G Spa on Newbury Street last Thursday, life sciences attorneys and technology executives enjoyed an evening of complimentary boutique services, wine, hors d'oeuvres, and dessert. For many women there, the goal, besides socializing, was to engage in some deal-making. Why not combine patents with pedicures, mergers with massages?

Although, if you caught Maureen Dowd's realistic, yet depressing essay in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, you can see how this might fit in with her views on the backwards momentum of the gender equality movement.