Gender inequalities: the role of social networks in gendered interactions and social structures

Gender inequalities are a worldwide issue with considerable social and economic costs. Current policy interventions lack effectiveness, resulting in women still being underrepresented in some occupational roles, bearing most of family responsibilities, and being disproportionately victims of abuse and violence. Gender inequalities affect mostly women and LGBT communities and intersect with other factors like class, ethnicity and age, but they also impact men who perform stereotypically feminine practices. These inequalities are systematically reproduced in everyday interactions, endorsing gendered expectations in social structures (i.e. at home, in schools, public and private organizations). Gender studies have recognised the importance of social networks in forming, reproducing and challenging gender stereotypes, although they have not specified the exact social network mechanisms that may endorse or contest them. Social network scholars instead largely use gender as an exogenous category, but they rarely make it the focus of social network theory. The goal of this project is to identify the social network mechanisms linking gendered micro-interactions to the macro-inequalities that systematically frame opportunities and constraints of men and women. In doing so, the project aims to address the gaps in gender studies and in social network research by - introducing gendered generative mechanisms for the formation, reproduction and modification of social networks and outcomes and - providing evidence for the role of social networks in producing and reproducing gender inequalities. The project investigates 1) if gender impacts how people form, maintain and dissolve social networks, and what outcomes they obtain from these networks, where outcomes can be status or economic returns, but also social isolation and stigmatization; 2) if gendered social network formations and outcomes vary depending on the type of relationship: not only positive relationships providing support, but also negative and ambivalent relationships; 3) if gendered network mechanisms and outcomes vary depending on the context in which they operate, i.e., national domains, schools, organizations, where gender cultures and policies may differ. The project will capitalise on the large amount of data publicly accessible for which the information on social networks and the characteristics of individuals (i.e. gender) is available. Specifically, we want to focus on personal networks over the lifetime; school networks; organizational networks; and covert and Illicit networks. The units of analysis in social network research are the relationships linking individuals, together with relationships' and individuals' characteristics. These units of analysis are not independent, as by virtue of being related individuals influence each other in how they manage both their relationships and their behaviours. Such type of data needs ad hoc methodologies that account for data dependencies, which will be employed in this project. Results will advance our understanding of gendered social network mechanisms, originally contributing to the academic debate addressing gender inequalities and their intersectionality with other factors. Contributions will be in the form of a book contract focusing on the main empirical results across the research domains; a scientific article in a high impact factor interdisciplinary journal illustrating systematic gender differences in social networks and outcomes; and three briefing documents which will feed into two grant proposals. In these proposals, we will extend the investigation of gender inequalities to non-binary people and to other research domains, and we will plan the design of ad hoc gender sensitive social network toolkits to facilitate the balancing out of gender inequalities in our research domains.