Building external relationships - reducing risk in a downturn

I remember a 2008 HBR article about how star women build portable skills. What was really interesting was that these women used their "barriers" to find ways to be even more successful than their counterparts.

• Less-than-wholehearted acceptance in male-dominated workplace
• Reluctance to build close relationships with men for fear of giving the appearance of impropriety
• Inadequate access to internal mentors
• "Guy-culture" prevents strong bonds with men

To counter these obstacles, they cultivated external relationships so they were less dependent on their current company. Because they had these relationships, when these women changed jobs they still had their support network in place to help them continue to be successful.

I'm wondering if this same ability to not only adapt to our constraints but to find creative ways to be successful in spite of them is related to the current unemployment situation.

Since the start of the recession, the unemployment rate for men has increased much more than for women. In August 2009, the male unemployment rate stood at 10.9% while that of females was 8.2%. This 2.7 percentage point difference is the largest unemployment gender gap in the postwar era. 
http://www.ny.frb.org/research/economists/sahin/GenderGap.pdf

Could it be that by being forced to develop strong external relationships, women have reduced their risk in this downturn? As my mom always said... "don't put all your eggs in one basket". What is true for boyfriends, investments, and money apparently is also true for professional relationships. By having strong relationships across industries and companies, by having a support group at different levels and from different walks of life, we are diversifying and providing a safety net.