Women use professional and social networks to push past the glass ceiling

To understand how professional networks contribute to persistent gender disparities in corporate leadership, researchers analyzed data from more than 19,000 corporate employees over 20 years. Published in Patterns, their results show that educational, employment, and social networks matter for both men and women, but women rely on more complex social networks to reach director-level positions than men. Women with professional ties to other female leaders were also more likely to be promoted.