Collaborative and Career Development Social Networks of Women and Men in Academic Sci

In studies in the academic science environment, research has implicitly addressed the ability of women to identify and access networks that are important in career development and success. Particularly in the most competitive academic institutions, career advancement is based on the ability to be a successful and productive researcher and the ability to develop effective collaborative relationships is an important factor in this process. Over time, faculty develop collaborative networks in which they interact professionally. Yet, for women in science, the lack of inclusion and access to effective professional networks has been linked to diminished career outcomes (Long and McGinnis 1981; Long, Allison et al. 1993; Fox 2001; Rosser 2003) . This paper addresses the issue of social networks for women in academic science by examining gender differences in the structure of networks. We ask: how does the structure of women’s professional networks in academic science differ from those of men?  How is the composition and hierarchy of networks different, if at all, by gender? Are collaborative and advice relationships between men and women different? What are the sources of network ties? How do network ties for women originate? What access do women scientists have to relevant social networks that provide resources critical for career success? What access do women’s networks provide relative to men’s in the academic science setting? This paper is primarily descriptive and seeks to create a foundational understanding of the gender differences in the structural and relational aspects of professional networks in academic science. To address these questions, we provide detailed descriptive analysis of the characteristics of the collaborative and career development networks of academic scientists.  Then, controlling for a range of demographic, rank, disciplinary, and other factors, we present a series of explanatory models regarding core network characteristics. Our results show that while some essential structural differences do exist between men and women’s networks, that the relational aspects of networks also differ. These results underscore anecdotal and other discussions in the literature on women in science and present a series of empirical results that may further research in this area.