Women Alone in the Middle: Gender Differences in the Occupation and Leverage of Social Network Brokerage Roles

ABSTRACT For decades, researchers have known that professional networks that are characterized by brokerage—connections to otherwise unconnected subnetworks within the organization—provide important advantages. People who occupy the powerful brokerage role reap significant career rewards, including faster rates of promotion, larger bonuses, more involvement in innovation, and greater likelihood of being identified as top talent (Halevy et al., 2019). However, recent evidence has emerged to suggest that women are less likely than men to occupy the brokerage position and, even when they do occupy it, are less likely to leverage it for career success (Fang et al., 2020). Several mechanisms have been advanced to explain these findings, including structural constraints caused by systemic discrimination and the effect of gender role expectations. This chapter reviews the research on gender and brokerage, and posits that a gendered socio-emotional experience of the brokerage role may also contribute to systematic disadvantage for women. Organizations can apply these ideas to further the career success of women through training and restructuring activities that reframe the brokerage experience, concrete tools for strategic network development, and and by reducing barriers to effective network development.