How culturally gendered identities shape women’s professional networks

The paper examines how cultural perception of gender shapes women’s professional network outcomes. Using a combination of field and experimental data, we find that women with more masculine identity elements are more likely to be selected as network contacts and are rated higher on competency without suffering likability loss. We thereby challenge the prevailing assumption that female disadvantage equals feminine disadvantages by disentangling the cultural meaning of gender from sex categories and examining their separate influences on professional network formation.