She’s always been a lot more status conscious and aware of making “useful” contacts and networking than I have. I think Girl Scouting was very useful to me and exposed me to lots of different perspectives, as did serving on a national board for the YWCA when I was in college. We’ve always been very different. 
The funny thing is our kids have made “useful contacts” without meaning to–they just have lots of interesting friends that are loyal.