Here's to Champagne's female grape-growers!

The men assume I don’t know what I’m talking about,” says Pauline, a professional grape grower from the Champagne region of France. “I’m never looked at as being head of the business.” In an industry that is over 80% male, Pauline is used to people assuming she is the wife or the daughter of the boss. In Champagne, it’s the men who work the land.

How could it be, then, that female grape growers are charging higher prices for their crop, and making more money than their male counterparts? Researchers Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, Adecco Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and Amandine Ody-Brasier, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of Management, found that the relationships that women develop to cope with the social isolation they feel gives them an invaluable resource: a network.