Taking stock of gendered social networks in organizations and careers: A literature review

Abstract

Ample research has explored men's and women's social networks, with the aim to link differences in structural properties of networks and networking behaviors to varying career outcomes. Despite the diverse contexts and methods, representing many aspects and nuances of the role played by gender in organizations, much of contemporary research echoes ideas of a few seminal works published in the 1980s and 1990s. Also, review articles and meta‐analyses often confirm predominant theories in the field, despite empirical indications at odds with basic tenets of the field. In this paper, we use qualitative thematic analysis and corroborate our findings with topic modeling to analyze 378 articles in the research field of gender, networks, and careers. The resulting review of existing research reveals the prevalence of single‐method and single‐issue studies, along with terminological ambiguities and frequent overgeneralizations across different contexts. These findings offer explanations to contradictory empirical results within the field and, also, point to avenues for future research. The review reveals the need for multilevel and longitudinal studies and for considering intersectional perspectives in research design. Additionally, we argue that closer attention be paid to levels of analysis and methods employed when reviewing previous research, with the present study acting as an example of how qualitative analysis and computational methods can be combined for more inductive and inclusive literature reviews.