Professional networking by gender: A case study on LinkedIn contacts for a professor in science

Abstract

In this study, we used data from LinkedIn networks to gain insight in how different groups network in terms of network size and gender composition among men and women. We have gathered categorical data from 751 LinkedIn networks to quantitatively analyze networking tendencies and network gender compositions in the categories gender, age, sector of work, fi?eld of work, level of education and area of residence. We have also determined networking "savviness" as a quantitative measure of social networking for comparing groups in the categories. The observations made regarding networking behavior among female and male LinkedIn users include that women on average had more female contacts than men in all categories. Female networks working in a non-technical fi?eld were found to have the most gender equal networks of all groups with an average of 42.5% female contacts. The data show further, that men and women in STEM and the private sector were savvier networkers and that users with a PhD had fewer female contacts on average than those without a PhD. Further, Scandinavian networks had signi?cantly more female contacts in their networks than networks from other European countries and North America had.