Gender Differences in SIOP Research Fellows’ Publication Networks

Abstract

Gardner, Ryan, and Snoeyink (2018) provide illuminating analyses regarding the role of gender in career advancement within industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. One of their suggestions for further advancing this area of research is to examine homophily, defined as the tendency for individuals to have social ties with those who are similar to themselves, in the social networks of men and women in the field. Such research is warranted because social networks—in particular, the networks of research collaboration relationships (e.g., publications, grants) scientists develop throughout their careers—are critical to success in academia (e.g., Bozeman & Corley, 2004).

Whether, How, and Why Networks Influence Men’s and Women’s Career Success: Review and Research Agenda

“…Taken together, there is initial evidence of a functional difference for men and women: Specifically, men actors had a higher proportion of men contacts in their successfully mobilized networks, which increased productivity for men actors. Alternatively, women actors tended to have a lower proportion of men contacts; moreover, a higher proportion of men successfully mobilized contacts was associated with lower productivity for women (McMillan et al, 2018; Whittington, 2018). Thus, having a higher proportion of men in their successfully mobilized networks benefited men’s productivity, whereas having a lower proportion of men (or a higher proportion of women) in their successfully mobilized networks benefited women’s productivity.…”

“…Evidence regarding UNR for the proportion of same-gender contacts is mixed. Three studies suggest men and women actors with similar proportions of successfully mobilized same-gender contacts receive similar productivity benefits (Ghiasi, Lariviere, & Sugimoto, 2015; McMillan, Shockley, & Carter, 2018; Whittington, 2018). Yet men and women actors also benefit from having some opposite-gender contacts; having networks composed of only same-gender successfully mobilized contacts hurt both men’s and women’s productivity (Ghiasi et al, 2015).…”

“…Regarding UNR, research has primarily examined successfully mobilized networks , finding that a higher proportion of men contacts was positively related to productivity for men (Ghiasi et al, 2015) but negatively related to productivity for women (McMillan et al, 2018; Whittington, 2018). However, men and women entrepreneurs received similar returns from the proportion of men in their instrumental networks (Chen et al, 2015).…”

“…Where functional differences are identified, men and women have alternative paths to career success and organizational intervention may be less critical. For example, for the proportion of men contacts in successfully mobilized networks, UNC and UNR combine to counteract or neutralize one another such that men benefit because they have more men contacts and women benefit because they have fewer men contacts in their successfully mobilized networks (McMillan et al, 2018; Whittington, 2018). The proportion of kin is another network characteristic that may result in compounding (dis)advantage or functional differences for men and women.…”