<p>It works both ways. I once went on a group interview at a fairly large company (maybe a billion in sales today). I overheard the managers talking about us when I went to the men’s room, and one manager said to the other “We’ve got to hire that chick. Did you see the rack on her? Who cares how she interviewed.” She got the job (I never told her the story). </p>
<p>Anyway, she started working there, and immediately had trouble building relationships. See, the managers were all men, and their after-hours social events were either at a strip club, a sports bar, a golf course, or a the local high school football game (it was a pretty rural location). She didn’t attend when they went to the strip club, couldn’t play golf, and didn’t know enough about sports to keep up with the conversation at those events. Plus, people would hit on her at the social events making her feel awkward. At the end of the semester, she didn’t get a full time offer, while most of the men who were in the “good ol’ boys club” did. </p>
<p>So being a woman both helped (get an internship) and hurt (getting a full time job).</p>
<p>Of course, it didn’t matter. She finished near the top of the class, went to work for a Fortune 500 company, left two years later to get a Stanford MBA, and now is a big shot in the San Francisco business world.</p>