It's not easy being pink: the pitfalls--and necessities--of marketing events to female decision-makers.

• Author: Stickel, Amy I.

Back in the old days--when women first began fighting for their places at law firms, legal departments and the C-suites of corporations--law firm client events generally consisted of golf tournaments, hanging out in box suites at sporting events and other manly activities.

But as the old boys' network has started to fall by the wayside, albeit slowly, client events need to evolve as well, experts say. Wading into the treacherous territory of gender differences can be challenging for most marketing departments, and changing the mindset among many partners about those events can be even more difficult. Nonetheless, as more and more women at companies are making the decisions about purchasing legal services, law firms must adapt to their clients' needs.

According to the American Bar Association's latest "Charting Our Progress: The Status of Women in the Profession Today," the percentage of women general counsel in Fortune 500 companies increased from 4 percent in 1994 to 15 percent in 2002.

The ABA acknowledges the difficulty women still have in breaking into the boys club. The report pointed that "men often view women as ill-equipped to generate business." Such attitudes, according to the report, "discourage women's access to traditional business development networks, which center on the informal networks men have with one another."

As the first women break into the top ranks, they deliberately do not want to be treated differently than their male counterparts, so the client events that worked for so long still do, at least for awhile, according to Marti Barletta, CEO of TrendSight and author of "Marketing to Women." "The attitude is, 'We're exactly the same as men,' and if you change anything because they are women, they will get very upset," she says.

There is a tipping point, though, where enough women executives join the corporate ranks where that attitude begins to change, and Barletta believes many companies are either at or nearing that point. "Women do look around and see how many other women there are and they say, 'What's with all this golf?' It's something that people ought to be taking more seriously," she warns.

Finding the right events is not always easy, though.

Some women do like golf, others still bristle at being boxed into the "feminine" category and other women shun events they might enjoy but where real networking opportunities are limited.

"I advise law firms not to just paint their programs pink," says Cristi Cooke...