This paper examines how women who have broken through the glass ceiling talk about their career paths, and in particular, the role of social networks and mentoring. Using a nonrandom snowball sample, the author interviewed fifteen women working in executive positions in finance in the New York City metropolitan area. Questions focused on the subjects' career paths, how they reached their current position, and what factors they believed resulted in their upward mobility. While the findings of the study may not have definitively proven anything about the women or the financial sector, the study was important in revealing information about the role and importance of mentoring within the context of the personal experiences and narratives of the women.

Results suggest that mentoring and social networks were instrumental in helping the women reach their elite positions. Specifically, a majority of the subjects interviewed pointed to their mentors as the pivotal reason for their success rather than emphasizing their own unique skills and abilities, suggesting that female executives may not simply need to "lean in" but identify and acquire mentoring from other executives further up the corporate ladder, further underscoring the role of social networks and social capital in the workplace.