Gender Differences in Networking

Abstract

Gender differences in networking have been cited as one of the main reasons for gender earnings and promotion gaps. Despite this fact there is little evidence on whether such differences exist or what they look like. We conduct an experiment to gain insight into these questions. The experiment is designed to understand differences in the strategic use of networks, when both men and women have the same opportunities to network. While we do find evidence of gender earnings and promotion gaps in the lab, we do not find evidence of gender differences in networking. Women and men do not differ in terms of their in- or out-degree nor in terms of their centrality in the network. Earnings and promotion gaps appear, because there is homophily in networks and male, but not female decision-makers, reward their network neighbours with increased earnings as well as promotion.

Keywords: gender, earnings and promotion gaps, networking, experiments

JEL Classification: J16, J71, C92