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Blind Ambition? The Effects of Social Networks and Institutional Sex Composition on the Job Search Outcomes of Elite Coeducational and Women’s College Graduates

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  • Maura A. Belliveau

    (Department of Management, Texas A&M University, 4221 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843-4221)

Abstract

In this paper, I develop a perspective on women’s career attainment focused on how employers’ salary offers may be constructed based on their assumptions regarding women’s access to comparative salary information. Therefore, although the use of social networks in job search may enhance women’s actual knowledge of prevailing wages, I hypothesize that institutional characteristics that employers could assume to constrain women’s networks and concomitant access to salary information will directly affect salary offers, as well as moderating the influence of network ties on pay. To test this perspective, job search outcomes of women attending elite coeducational and women’s colleges were examined. Regarding the number of offers obtained, women who consulted with proportionally more male peer and employed adult male advice ties received significantly more job offers than women using fewer male advice contacts. With regard to salary offers, this study reveals an institutional sex composition effect: women exiting single-sex institutions (i.e., women’s colleges) received significantly lower salary offers than women from coeducational schools, even after accounting for human capital, job characteristics, and institutional reputation. The effects of social networks on pay were moderated by institutional sex composition such that women exiting women’s colleges received lower returns in the form of salary to their cross-gender advice ties than did women from a matched coeducational institution. Implications of these results for theories of social capital and women’s occupational attainment are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Maura A. Belliveau, 2005. "Blind Ambition? The Effects of Social Networks and Institutional Sex Composition on the Job Search Outcomes of Elite Coeducational and Women’s College Graduates," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 134-150, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:16:y:2005:i:2:p:134-150
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1050.0119
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    5. Bowles, Hannah Riley & McGinn, Kathleen L., 2007. "Untapped Potential in the Study of Negotiation and Gender Inequality in Organizations," Working Paper Series rwp07-062, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Bowles, Hannah Riley & McGinn, Kathleen, 2008. "Gender in Job Negotiations: A Two-Level Game," Working Paper Series rwp08-027, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    7. Isabel Fernandez-Mateo & Roberto M. Fernandez, 2016. "Bending the Pipeline? Executive Search and Gender Inequality in Hiring for Top Management Jobs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3636-3655, December.
    8. Kathleen L. McGinn & Katherine L. Milkman, 2013. "Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity Among Professionals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 1041-1060, August.
    9. Teniell L. Trolian & Elizabeth A. Jach & Christine A. Ogren & Jana M. Hanson, 2018. "Women Students’ Interactions with Faculty and Exposure to Good Teaching at Colleges and Universities with Varying Histories of Admitting Women," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(4), pages 461-488, June.
    10. Adina D. Sterling & Roberto M. Fernandez, 2018. "Once in the Door: Gender, Tryouts, and the Initial Salaries of Managers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5444-5460, November.
    11. Amara, Nabil & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia & Fernández-de-Lucio, Ignacio, 2019. "Overcoming the “lost before translation” problem: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 22-36.
    12. Bowles, Hannah Riley, 2012. "Psychological Perspectives on Gender in Negotiation," Scholarly Articles 9830358, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    13. Bowles, Hannah Riley, 2012. "Psychological Perspectives on Gender in Negotiation," Working Paper Series rwp12-046, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    14. Mukhammadyusuf Shaymardanov & Suvi Heikkinen & Anna-Maija Lämsä, 2023. "Social Networks of Women in Organizations: Evolution of Research and Future Research Agenda," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 97-112, April.
    15. Weihua Li & Sam Zhang & Zhiming Zheng & Skyler J. Cranmer & Aaron Clauset, 2022. "Untangling the network effects of productivity and prominence among scientists," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Maura A. Belliveau, 2012. "Engendering Inequity? How Social Accounts Create vs. Merely Explain Unfavorable Pay Outcomes for Women," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1154-1174, August.
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