Measuring Gender Differences in Information Sharing Using Network Analysis: the Case of the Austrian Interlocking Directorship Network in 2009

In recent literature a relevant problem has been the relationship between career/personal contact networks and different career paths. In addition, the recent advances in social capital theory have shown the way in which networks impact on personal careers. In particular women’s careers appear to be negatively affected by the informational network structure. The main contribution of this work is to propose empirical evidence of this phenomenon by considering the gendered directorship network with relation to Austria and to show the structural differences by gender in the network. By using community detection techniques we have found various communities in which females seem not to be present at all, where females show significantly fewer contacts than males in the network, and finally where the proportion of males exceeds 91%. The results show the predominant role in the network of male directors; these differences are very relevant if we consider the network as a tool of vehicle information and as a power mechanism. In this paper we wish to make an original contribution to the debate of the well-known “glass-ceiling” effec

Women directors: The Italian way and beyond

A recent Italian law mandates a the temporary increased representation of women on boards of publicly -listed and state-owned companies. While traditionally a poor performer on gender issues, this new law has the potential to make Italy a prominent world player in equality between the sexes. Women Directors analyzes the Italian law on gender quotas oin boards as a vital opportunity for the country and a key international case. It provides a broad perspective of the new Italian experience, which has the potential to influence the way of to addressing gender quota issues worldwide. The key elements of the Italian approach, which includes the interaction between public and private spheres, the prompting of an intense debate, the promotion of meritocracy consistently with the emergence of female talents, contribute to spread the impact of the Italian law beyond the country, beyond the period of implementation of the law and beyond the mere increase of in the number of women in boards

Measuring Gender Differences in Information Sharing Using Network Analysis: The Case of the Austrian Interlocking Directorship Network in 2009

In recent literature a relevant problem has been the relationship between career/personal contactnetworks and different career paths. In addition the recent advances in social capital theory have shown the way in which networks impact on personal careers. In particular womens careers appear to be negatively affected by the informational network structure. The main contribution of this work is to propose empirical evidence of this phenomenon by considering the gendered directorship network with relation to Austria and to show the structural differences by gender in the network. By using community detection techniques we have found various communities in which females seem not to be present at all, where females show significantly fewer contacts than males in the network, and finally where the proportion of males exceeds 91%. The results show the predominant role in the network of male directors;these differences are very relevant if we consider the network as a tool of vehicle information and as a power mechanism. In this paper we wish to make an original contribution to the debate of the well-known glass-ceiling effect