Young Song, Eun; Vernet, Antoine; Pryke, Stephen; (2022) In Women we Trust? Gender-Status Mismatch and Trust in Professional Networks. Gender & Society 10.1177/08912432221128548. (In press).

Preview

Text Vernet_GnS Manuscript_RnR2_210622_cut.pdf Download (281kB) | Preview

Abstract

Although scholars have long acknowledged the importance of having effective networks in business, little is known about the role of women’s professional status in the effectiveness of their networks. Drawing on gender-status beliefs theory, we examine how a woman’s status affects levels of trust in the information that she shares with members of her professional network. We hypothesize that network members are likely to mistrust information from women because of a gender-status mismatch—a perceived mismatch between a woman’s work-related high status and her low social status, due to widely held beliefs about women’s lack of competence. By measuring three types of status and analyzing trust levels in 3,842 dyads from communication networks in a UK railway construction project from 2014 through 2015, we find that network members trust information from women who are in supervisory positions and are connected with central contacts less than information from low-status women. Our study extends the literature on gender-status beliefs and effective networks, and discusses practical implications.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item