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The influence of gender ratios on academic careers: Combining social networks with tokenism

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  • Constantin Schoen
  • Katja Rost
  • David Seidl

Abstract

This paper examines how gender proportions at the workplace affect the extent to which individual networks support the career progress (i.e. time to promotion). Previous studies have argued that men and women benefit from different network structures. However, the empirical evidence about these differences has been contradictory or inconclusive at best. Combining social networks with tokenism, we show in a longitudinal academic study that gender-related differences in the way that networks affect career progress exist only in situations where women are in a token position. Our empirical results further show that women not in severely underrepresented situations benefit from the same network structure as men.

Suggested Citation

  • Constantin Schoen & Katja Rost & David Seidl, 2018. "The influence of gender ratios on academic careers: Combining social networks with tokenism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0207337
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207337
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mike Thelwall, 2020. "Mid-career field switches reduce gender disparities in academic publishing," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(3), pages 1365-1383, June.
    2. Olsson, Anders Lindh & Snellman, Markus & Deppert, Knut & Lövkrona, Inger, 2020. "Professional networking by gender: A case study on LinkedIn contacts for a professor in science," SocArXiv fs9jy, Center for Open Science.
    3. Adrián A Díaz-Faes & Paula Otero-Hermida & Müge Ozman & Pablo D’Este, 2020. "Do women in science form more diverse research networks than men? An analysis of Spanish biomedical scientists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, August.

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