A well-known quote from a 1982 Frank and Earnest cartoon succinctly captures the essence of gender equity. In discussing a poster for a Fred Astaire film festival, a woman remarks to her male companions, “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did … backwards and in high heels.” This witty observation underscores the extra hurdles women have historically faced in achieving success, often without receiving due recognition.
One of the most glaring disparities is the persistent gap in pay between men and women. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, women working full time, year-round earn 83.7 percent of what their male counterparts earn. This gap is even wider for Black and Hispanic women.
The gender gap
Another overlooked aspect contributing to this gender gap is the difference in networking opportunities. Research spanning decades has shown that women tend to have less robust networks compared to men, and they often don’t benefit from their networks to the same extent. This discrepancy may stem from societal stereotypes that view women as communal and warm, while attributing qualities like agency and action to men. Consequently, women have historically struggled to leverage their networks as effectively as men.
Research from Tuck explores whether this gap can be reduced, or even eliminated. The researchers focus on job mobility as a potential avenue for women to bridge networks and reap the same benefits as men.
Previous studies have shown that changing jobs offers a unique opportunity for individuals to act as brokers, forming new connections while maintaining old ones. Brokers, who serve as links between disconnected networks, typically receive favorable evaluations, quicker promotions, and higher pay—though predominantly if they’re men. Women who fulfill this brokerage role don’t enjoy the same advantages.
Why mobility matters
To investigate the impact of job mobility and brokerage on the gender gap in networks, the researchers analyzed email data from a large financial services firm. With information on over 12,000 employees’ gender, sales, and work locations, they examined how mobility, networks, and individual performance evolved together.
“Retail banking is a great setting in which to study this,” the authors explain, “because people move around a fair amount, but their job doesn’t change significantly when they move. This means there’s a lot of information and ideas that employees can obtain through their networks that help them do their job better.”
When the coauthors analyzed the data, they found that women who switch branches are more inclined than men to maintain connections with colleagues from their previous branches. These interactions prove to be valuable, improving their job performance. Consequently, the main discovery of the paper is that job mobility erases the disparity between men’s and women’s networks and levels the playing field in terms of the benefits they derive from networking.
“Whereas we see women being disadvantaged in networks and brokerage when they don’t change jobs,” the authors conclude, “when they do change jobs both of those disadvantages are completely removed.”
“What we are suggesting is firms be proactive in recognizing there are benefits to everybody of moving jobs,” they continue. “Those benefits include the sort of cross-pollination of ideas and information across different departments and units of the organization. If it also creates more gender equity, then that’s another good reason to do it.”
