Advice Inequality in Personal Networks: Do Gender Dynamics Matter?

Who is granted the privilege of knowing things? Drawing from status characteristics theory and homophily, this article examines how gender structures epistemic authority in personal advice networks. Using three waves of the UC Berkeley Social Networks Study panel, we analyze longitudinal changes in who is named, who is retained, and who transitions into or out of advice-giving roles. Although women and men are more likely to name same-gender alters as advisors, homophily alone is insufficient for explaining advice-giving as network dynamics are asymmetric and operate differently across genders. Men are more likely to retain male advisors and drop female advisors over time, while women more commonly transition female advisors into other network roles and recruit advice-givers from the women already present in their networks. We propose next steps for understanding how advice-giving sustains gender inequality by structuring not only what we know but also whose knowledge counts.