Women's professional status and trust in networks

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