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More data this year revealed the following: Working women don’t have enough time.

A Pew Research Center study released in July found that more working mothers today considered part-time work a better option than full-time.

When asked the question, “What’s ideal for you?” 21% responded “full-time work,” down from 32% in 1997. Meanwhile, the desire to work part-time jumped 12% in popularity, from 48% 10 years ago to 60% today. Those working women who said “not working” was the best option stayed about the same, falling one percentage point, from 20% to 19% over the past 10 years.

But just because 60% of respondents say part-time work sounds ideal doesn’t mean they’ve defected from full-time jobs in mass numbers. Nearly three in four women who were employed in 2005 worked full-time. According to the Families and Work Institute’s 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, the combined weekly work hours of dual-earner families rose 10 hours a week between 1977 and 2002, from 81 to 91.

Establishing a strong personal network might be one way to help working families free up time and enhance their quality of life, says Jeanne Hurlbert, a network coach and LSU sociology professor.

“We need to start thinking about, and activating, networks in a new way,” says Hurlbert, whose consulting firm, Optinet Resources, evaluates the strength of an individual’s personal and professional relationships and recommends solutions for improving them. “Ideally, you want both well-developed professional and personal networks.”

It might sound counterintuitive if you’re time-challenged, but it’s just a matter of changing the way you think, says Hurlbert, who became interested in how networks assist working families after the birth of her daughter, now almost six.

Hurlbert and her husband/colleague, Jack Beggs, who also is an LSU professor of sociology, suggest taking advantage of existing opportunities to grow personal networks at events you’ll attend anyway, like children’s birthday parties, school functions or soccer games.

The trick, Hurlbert says, is to consider the ways in which the people in the room can enhance your quality of life—and you can enhance theirs.

“Start by listening,” Hurlbert says. “Ask people questions about themselves and zero in on common ground.”

From those interactions, Hurlbert says, opportunities sometimes present themselves in which both parties find solutions to every day challenges. Sharing carpools or trading errands can free up several hours a month.

Women are sometimes hesitant to employ this type of thinking in social situations, Hurlbert says, but it often produces satisfying, win-win arrangements.

Personal networks can also trigger additional professional contacts. They can provide support during natural disasters or crises like divorce or health problems.

“Using ties,” she says, “is not using people.”

In fact, those who lack social networks can be more vulnerable to crises, says Hurlbert, who has studied how an individual’s network affects job-finding, job satisfaction, health, access to social support and recovery from disasters.

“There was a reason why there were so many people on roofs during Hurricane Katrina. They had no one to turn to,” she says.

Even if you have hurricane preparedness covered, a surprising number of Americans have not fostered reliable, personal “core networks.”

A 2004 national survey conducted by Duke University showed that one-quarter of Americans could name no close confidants, and almost half of those surveyed could name two or fewer.

Hurlbert adds that while Internet networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are drawing more attention today they don’t carry the same currency of a real-time, in-person exchange.

“They’re never going to be a substitute for face-to-face networking, in my opinion,” she says.