This article investigates the historical trends of women's migration from India to GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, as well as the obstacles they confront in their destination countries. Indian women's migration to GCC countries has surged in recent years from a variety of states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar etc. This migration trend is driven by job opportunities in various area such as hospitality, domestic work, healthcare and other manual work. Migrant women meet a variety of obstacles, including social and vulnerability, as they navigate a work environment marked by low wages, limited labour rights, exploitation, and controlled mobility in host countries. The migratory pattern also addresses gender issues, such as disparities in safe working conditions and equal treatment. Despite these issues, remittances sent by women migrants play vital role in supporting their family back home and have made a considerable contribution to local micro-economic development. The primary goal of this paper is to examine the remittances sent by women migrants to their families. It also highlights potential policy solutions provided by government institutions that can help to improve the experience of women migrants and their rights.

Gender is one of the first characteristics recognized in social interactions, making networking a gendered practice. Despite greater access to key positions in organizations, women’s network positions still differ from men’s. Networking is often perceived as a male-stereotyped behavior, making women less preferred networking partners, particularly in informal settings. In formal settings, where competencies are emphasized, women may temporarily overcome these stereotypes. Considering networking as a gendered practice, the behavior of male colleagues who support women (male allies, MA) during networking may lead to greater inclusion of women in favorable network positions. This study examines how women's positions shift across formal and informal networking phases and whether male allies facilitate their integration into central positions.

A social network analysis was conducted among 54 members (40 men; 14 women) of a male-dominated interorganizational research network in the STEM university sector. The network was assessed before, during, and after a daylong symposium, including an informal get-together. Additionally, self-reported MA behaviors were analyzed

No significant gender differences in centrality emerged during formal phases of networking. However, women’s centrality declined significantly in the informal phase, where they were also nominated far less frequently as contacts. Male allies, in contrast, maintained their central positions throughout.

These preliminary findings suggest that women integrate well into formal networking settings but become less favored network partners in informal contexts. While male allies remain central in both phases, they do not actively facilitate women’s inclusion in informal networking, highlighting the need to strengthen allyship beyond structured environments.

The paper examines music networks in the Indian independent music industry and how attitudinal discrimination and sexist structures within them work against women.

Between 2000 to 2024 the Indian indie industry, which caters largely to an English-speaking

urban audience, has witnessed an economic recession in 2008 and a pandemic in 2020. Despite these odds, the Indian indie networks have witnessed significant growth in terms of resources, infrastructure and opportunities with digital streaming and social media platforms extensively widening the scope of the community to reach global audiences.

Yet, a massive disparity exists within music networks because of various types of bias

including gendering that has led to objectification of women, harassment and an unequal wage system. The Indian indie music industry is an informal sector with no organizational structures that legitimize wage structures, hierarchical positions and growth of individuals. So personal networks and social following become all the more crucial in determining the role of music professionals.

While the focus of this paper is women in the performance space, it is significant to note that women music music professionals across the industry including artist managers, tour managers and crew among others are faced with gender inequality especially with regard to employment opportunities, moving up the ranks and an increase in pay scales.

The paper analyses how network structures can shift to transform the industry and how women can gain agency to not only overcome these challenges but also demand equity.

According to extant literature, respectful leadership style is one of the theoretical constructs that better captures empathy, collaboration, and social responsibility associated with women leadership. Despite possessing these qualities, women continue to face challenges in fully expressing their leadership potential.

Building on the Stereotyped Content Model, in this paper we investigate women's perceptions of respectful leadership and the associated challenges. Specifically, we seek to understand the gap between the expectations placed on women in leading respectfully and societal factors (i.e. confidence, societal expectations, or organisational barriers) that may hinder the adoption of this style.

To this end, we interview 44 female leaders from Italy and the UK. We employ Leximancer to map the key themes and concepts around respectful leadership style and women’s perceptions. We obtained a semantic network that visually identify the relationship between concepts, providing insights into the interconnected nature of leadership practices and social expectations.

Preliminary results show that women value respectful leadership for organisational success and relationships with employees. However, organisational context may hinder the adoption of this leadership. Our results provide empirical evidence on the complex roles women play in organisations and the barriers they face in fully expressing their identities and asserting their leadership.

Gender diversity may play an important role in shaping academic collaboration, career advancement, and access to mentorship opportunities. This study investigates whether gender diversity in different researchers’ settings (large and small) influence the professional development of researchers by analyzing co-authorship networks in the field of network science over the past nine years.

We identified research teams and collaboration patterns across academic disciplines by building attributed temporal weighted co-authorship networks. Our analysis seeks to uncover patterns and trends in academic collaboration groups, providing insights into how and in which way they succeed/evolve focusing on gender diversity.

This paper analyses the role of artistic brokerage in Barcelona, arguing for the importance of taking a gendered view. The artistic market is increasingly individualized and based on a monopoly of legitimate culture by mediators. Such figures are key producers of social capital in terms of providing job opportunities, artistic recognition and reputation building. Studies from the Spanish music market and artistic residencies show how artists strategically build social capital to receive commissions and recognition through networking. Moreover, previous studies reveal the existence of patterns of epistemic and symbolic injustice that shape the distribution of cultural and social capital among professional artists. We hypothesize that gender homophily of the artists’ personal networks reproduces objective forms of inequality in the job market. The glass ceiling and leaky pipeline ought to come with gaps in female powerful brokers in the network such as curators, gallery owners or funding commissioners. We look at the composition of 30 visual artists' personal networks within four different disciplines in Barcelona as part of video-aided ethnography research using a mixed methodology, by combining semi-structured interviews, observation, participatory photography and SNA. The results obtained from centrality and compositional measures with Egonet lead us to consider that gender homophily has a dual effect on artistic careers and reputations. While female contacts provide positive role models for artists, upscale recognition, visibility and legitimacy depends specifically on close access to female artistic brokers. Structural patterns of inequality shape the networks.

It takes a village to raise a child: women’s labour force participation is not just a function of their personal choices or economic conditions but also the strength and quality of the support systems that surround them. This study investigates the role of support networks in shaping the labour force participation of young mothers in urban India, focusing on the intricate dynamics between kin and non-kin support systems. Drawing on data from 193 women aged 25-35 with at least one child aged five or younger across the National Capital Region of India, the research combines bivariate and multivariate analyses with qualitative insights from 30 in-depth interviews.

The study hypothesizes that stronger and more diverse support networks enable higher workforce participation among women. We introduce a multidimensional framework to understand support, categorizing it into density, source, type, and intensity. Density refers to the number of support systems available, while source distinguishes between kin (e.g., family) and non-kin (e.g., domestic workers, community services). Type examines the kind of support provided, such as housework or childcare, and intensity reflects the frequency and depth of assistance.

Key findings reveal that higher support density correlates with increased workforce participation. Women with five or more support sources are nearly four times more likely to engage in paid work. Additionally, the type and intensity of support are pivotal. For instance, high-intensity housework support from domestic workers (OR=7.28) and childcare support from mothers-in-law (OR=6.02) significantly enhance labour participation. Conversely, limited support or adverse family dynamics, such as minimal spousal involvement or restrictive in-laws, create substantial barriers.

The qualitative narratives highlight the dual nature of support systems. Positive examples include women whose in-laws or domestic workers facilitate career continuity by assuming significant household responsibilities. However, other accounts underscore the constraints imposed by conservative family norms or unreliable external childcare. Women often express mistrust toward daycare facilities, emphasizing the necessity of dependable family support.

The findings underscore the critical role of comprehensive and reliable support networks in enabling young mothers to balance work and domestic duties. While joint families and domestic workers often provide this support, the study also identifies gaps where traditional norms or a lack of external resources hinder women's professional aspirations. These insights suggest the need for policy interventions to expand access to affordable domestic help and high-quality childcare while promoting equitable household responsibilities within families.

By shifting the focus beyond individual agency or household size, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how social structures influence women's labour force participation. It calls for a re-evaluation of support systems, emphasizing quality and functionality over mere availability, and advocates for inclusive strategies to dismantle systemic barriers faced by urban mothers. This study offers a comprehensive lens to understand the intersections of gender, labour, and support systems, laying the groundwork for future research and policy aimed at fostering gender equity in the workforce.

This research examines the role of female star inventors in the post-merger integration (PMI) of technology firms, focusing on the acquisition of ATI Technologies by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). While prior studies highlight gender disparities in technology industries, this study explores how female lead inventors impact social network structures and knowledge integration. Utilizing patent data from the USPTO, we reconstruct inventor collaboration networks and analyze the effects of relational stars—connectors and integrators—on group cohesion and knowledge exploration. Findings suggest that female connectors significantly enhance group cohesion by fostering collaborative ties, aligning with gender role expectations of communal and relational behaviors. On the other hand, both male and female integrators exhibit greater engagement in knowledge exploration, leveraging their network centrality to access diverse resources. Despite stereotypes limiting female participation in technology, our results indicate that female star inventors play a critical role in bridging knowledge silos and improving post-merger collaboration. These findings contribute to the literature on gender dynamics in innovation-driven M&As, emphasizing the influence of social-relational dynamics on firm knowledge dynamics.

Gender clearly informs women’s and men’s collaborative profiles and career activities, yet the research on these is conflicted. Some cases find parity, while others find women’s network positioning to be qualitatively different or cumulatively disadvantaging. Further, prior studies often focus on single disciplines or countries, and/or invoke cross-sectional snapshots, and large-scale analyses have been limited to less computationally-intensive network measures.

Using Scopus data (2009-2023), we construct global co-authorship networks for authors in 20 region-subject pairs across two periods (2009-2013; 2014-2018) and measures of downstream productivity and citations. We hypothesize that gender affects social capital, with women receiving differential benefits from network positioning on future activity. Our independent variables include measures of (normalized) brokerage and aggregate constraint, and their interaction with gender, as well as controls for gender homophily and interdisciplinarity, for region, subject, and publication experience.

We find that network benefits are contingent on gender, with variation across regions and subjects. Women’s future productivity benefits more than men’s when in network positions rich in brokerage opportunities, yet does not reach parity at any level of normalized brokerage. Yet for constraint, the largest predicted differences are between men and women who are least constrained. All else equal, the gender “discount” for women ranges between 5-7% (high brokerage, high constraint) and 14-18% (low constraint, low brokerage). Conversely, there is more equity in reward for brokerage and constraint on citation count (5% or less). We discuss these, as well as important nuances of considering gender disparity across time and globally.

Male violence causes enormous health, social, political and economic problems internationally. At an interpersonal level, efforts to reduce violence have recognised that narrowly defined views of masculinity contribute substantially to this problem. From the perspective that gender is socially constructed, relationships with others are exceptionally important and hence a social network perspective to this issue is highly applicable. This paper presents a theoretical framework and network metrics on what positively enacted masculinities (i.e., pro-gender equity and non-violence endorsing) might look like. We present such theory and metrics in relation to a case study of a boys-only secondary school in Australia to show how network structures, node-level attributes, and exogenous features may impact on enactments of masculinity. We propose a range of social mechanisms that we would expect to see if positively enacted masculinities were present in a school on a range of different types of networks and then use exponential random graph models (ERGMs) to test for their presence within our case study. We discuss the implications of our findings and the need for greater theorizing of social mechanisms relevant to positive and non-violent masculinities.

Belonging, as a fundamental psychological need, plays an important role in students’ mental well-being and academic persistence. Being a numerical minority has been found to be associated with a lower sense of belonging, for instance, female minority students in engineering education. Although the theoretical arguments of belonging and qualitative research highlight the importance of interpersonal relationships on belonging perception, the quantitative research remains insufficient in determining the extent to which the established peer relationships influence students’ sense of belonging, especially those who are a gender minority within the study cohort. To fill this research gap, the present study implements a longitudinal research design to study sense of belonging and friendships among N = 311 first-year students in three different study cohorts. Participants were surveyed four times during their first academic year 2022-2023. By applying mixed-effects models with longitudinal aggregated network data, we find a significant and positive influence of the number of friends within the cohort on students’ sense of belonging. Our preliminary results also suggest that having a higher ratio of cross-gender friends positively affects female minority students’ sense of belonging. Moreover, we evaluate whether the association between friendships and sense of belonging is moderated by satisfaction with their social connectedness. Overall, our findings shed light on the importance of peer relationships to narrow a gender gap in sense of belonging and provide practical implications for educational institutions to integrate gender-underrepresented students more strategically in higher education.

The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in South Korea have traditionally been perceived as male-dominated. Despite two decades of government-led policies aimed at fostering female STEM workers, only a small number of women have managed to sustain long-term careers in STEM. Before gender imbalance became a major societal issue, female STEM workers often coped with gender inequality in male-centred organisations by adopting the "superwoman" role, striving for perfection in both work and family life. Since the 2010s, however, Korean female STEM professionals have increasingly pursued career development not only through networking within their fields but also through government-led initiatives promoting overseas employment. This shift suggests a growing perception that leaving the domestic STEM industry can positively impact career progression.

This study explores how female STEM professionals, who have limited social capital due to male-dominated social networks, have navigated career development and how their narratives have evolved. To investigate this, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 female STEM professionals working in South Korea and Western countries.

Findings indicate that since the 2010s, the expansion of global STEM networks through online platforms and international academic exchanges has provided Korean female STEM workers with greater opportunities to acquire social capital. Consequently, the "superwoman" narrative has gradually weakened, enabling women to seek alternative career paths beyond male-dominated networks. This study argues that the increasing trend of overseas employment among Korean female STEM professionals is not merely an individual choice but a structural shift facilitated by global networking and social capital exchange.

Despite growing interest in political polarization in social networks, relatively few studies have explored the co-evolution of political orientations and social ties (Lazer et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2020), and even fewer have considered the role of gender, which is often correlated with the former. This study expands the literature by analyzing the social networks of law students, whose political orientations are often intertwined with the ways they build social ties and how those ties influence their political behavior. Using two waves of the Student Experiences in Law School Study (SELSS), conducted at three law schools in the Midwest during fall 2019 and spring 2020, we examine the co-evolution of social ties and political behavior, with a particular focus on the moderating role of gender.

Our research addresses two key points. First, we differentiate political behavior into two components: political orientation and membership in student chapters of politically oriented legal organizations. Second, we center gender in our analysis to explore how the gender of law students influences their formation of social ties in relation to political orientations and organizational memberships, and how these ties, in turn, shape their political behavior. Using Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs), we hypothesize that law students will align both their political orientations and organizational memberships with those of their friends. In addition to this peer effects hypothesis, we expect homophilous selection based on political affiliation and orientation. Furthermore, we anticipate positive interaction effects between similarity in political associations and orientations. Finally, we test the role of gender in both peer effects and homophilous selection.

Seed circulation is a source of exchange of both cultural knowledge and genetic material and shapes the distribution of crop diversity and associated knowledge. Through a case-study among the Bassari of south-eastern Senegal, we explore the pathways, mechanisms, and actors mediating farmers access to seed with a focus on gender. By examining how seeds are accessed and by whom, we seek to uncover the social and power dynamics that shape gendered inequalities in seed access. We used a mixed-methods approach, combining ethnographic methods with a seed network survey documenting farmers seed acquisitions for the six main staple crops cultivated in the study area. We then tested the association between farmers’ centrality in the seed circulation network and their socio-demographic characteristics (n=258 farmers). We find that intersecting individual-level factors (i.e., gender, age, wealth) influence farmers’ centrality in the network and therefore, their access to seed. We argue that the roles and expertise around seeds are gendered, situated, dynamic, and constantly renegotiated, leading to structural inequalities affecting farmers’ access to seed. Moreover, such inequalities can be exacerbated by external interventions rooted on colonial histories and reinforced by the neoliberal food regime. To guarantee equitable access to locally adapted and culturally appropriate seeds entails explicitly addressing gender, wealth, and other dimensions of local inequality within and beyond households.

In this study, I explore how social support from online and offline communities are complementary resources that can aid women during the transition to motherhood. Although new mothers’ social support has been studied, little research systematically explores the social interactions and types of social support utilized within both online and offline networks. To address this gap, I ask two questions: (1) what types of support do mothers seek? (2) how do mothers navigate support within their online and offline communities? The current study uses a combination of over 2000 threads related to support scraped from five parenting subreddits, original survey collection of over 400 social media users, and 46 in-depth interviews to study mothers’ usage of online and offline social support networks. I find that mothers often rely on both online and offline networks to provide various types of support. Motivations for using online communities over offline networks varied, suggesting that depending on the topics, comfort level, and timing, mothers may selectively choose where and who to seek support from. Women frequently sought emotional and informational support within online communities, in contrast to more practical and emotional support from their offline networks. Additionally, mothers used their online communities to navigate and gain information on how to manage their offline relationships. Overall, these results suggest that online peer groups in which mothers can disclose events and challenges may help reduce feelings of isolation, enable the exchange of support between new mothers, and may supplement their in-person networks.

Research on cognitive social structures reveals that perceptions of social networks can significantly shape individual outcomes, often more profoundly than the actual network structure. If women’s social capital in organizations is systematically underrecognized, such misperceptions could have profound implications for career advancement and workplace gender equity.

This study examines gender bias and network perceptions through two vignette experiments. The experiments provided respondents with information about the structure of an instrumental network in a public organization and asked them to recall the structure of the network. The first experiment examines the presence of gender bias in network recall across varying organizational contexts. The second study delves deeper into how gender stereotypes exacerbate biases in perceptions of women’s social capital within organizations.

We find that respondents consistently perceive men as having greater prestige and indegree centrality compared to women despite both having identical structural positions in the network. This bias persists across diverse organizational contexts and is significantly heightened in the presence of gender stereotypes. Findings from this study contribute to discussions on gender bias, network cognition, and gender equity in professional and governance networks.

The proverb “Birds of a feather flock together” reflects the tendency of similar individuals to establish mutual ties. Social networks emerge from interactions shaped by multiple attributes—such as class, ethnicity, age, language, and interests—some mutually exclusive and others not. While previous studies have primarily focused on single-dimensional homophilic attachment with exclusive categories, the dynamics driving multidimensional connection preferences remain less explored. In this work, we introduce a social distance attachment model that captures both homophilic and heterophilic connectivity across multiple features, with the flexibility to incorporate social factors characterized by non-exclusive categories. This approach allows us to assess the relative importance and hierarchy of each factor in group formation.

To validate our approach, we analyze a historical collaboration network derived from the correspondence archives of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), UNESCO's precursor. This dataset, comprising 7049 documents from the interwar period and 684 individuals, reveals that homophilic attachment around topics was the primary driver of group formation, followed by language, while gender had the least influence.

We further explore whether alternative pathways can enhance the centrality of minorities, particularly women, within the IIIC network. While heterophilic connections promote minority inclusion across all configurations, cross-dimensional bridging—especially through topic or gender—achieves higher connectivity than prioritizing language alone.

These findings suggest the need for minority inclusion strategies that go beyond conventional approaches, leveraging the interplay between social dimensions to promote more equitable participation in collaborative environments.

Research on gender and intra-organisational networks consistently finds that men and women not only have different network structures but also derive unequal returns from them (Woehler et al., 2021). However, the existing literature assumes that all women face the same network challenges hence overlooking the critical role of motherhood. Our work challenges that assumption and argues that motherhood, particularly early motherhood, significantly impacts women’s ability to build and maintain professional networks. We propose that mothers, beyond the effects of gender alone, experience disadvantages in key intra-organisational network positions, particularly brokerage. Specifically, we argue that the demands of motherhood, especially the psychological and time-based strains associated with raising young children, create a heightened family-work conflict. Given that brokerage requires substantial time and cognitive resources, we argue that young mothers who experience heightened family-work conflict will face a distinct penalty in attaining and maintaining these influential positions. To investigate this, we collected complete network data from a UK-based not-for-profit organisation at two time points (six months apart), achieving 80% and 71% response rates at Time 1 and Time 2, respectively. Our preliminary findings, which will be presented at the Sunbelt Conference, provide novel insights into the intersection of gender, parenthood, and network inequalities—advancing the conversation on workplace equity beyond gender alone.

This study introduces a framework for analyzing perceived care networks in fertility decision-making. While prior research has focused on received financial and emotional support from close family, this study highlights expected social support across broader social networks. It conceptualizes care networks as multi-layered structures, extending from partners and family to friends, neighbors, care services, government, and broader society.

Using the trust radius framework, we develop a novel measurement approach to assess individuals’ perceived care radius—the distribution of expected support across various network sources. This radius is operationalized using intercept-constrained regression, where the slope of expected support levels across sources indicates how evenly support is perceived to be distributed. A flatter slope suggests a wider care radius, while a steeper slope indicates concentration in fewer sources.

South Korea provides an ideal context due to public discourse on child-rearing exclusion (e.g., “No Kids Zones”). Preliminary findings from the 2023 Reciprocity and Cooperation Survey indicate systematic differences in perceived care radius by gender and socioeconomic status. Women, particularly those of lower SES, report a narrower care radius, suggesting greater dependence on formal services and a more stratified access to social support.

By integrating network perspectives into fertility research, this study advances methodologies for quantifying the structure of perceived support networks and examines how care radius perceptions shape fertility attitudes and intentions. Further analysis employs linear and multinomial logistic regression to assess the impact of care radius on childbearing decisions.

In conflict and climate change contexts, women's networks play a key role in environmental defense, political mobilization, and collective action. However, there is limited information available about how network formation and structure (relationships and governance) influence their outcomes in terms of political advocacy and territorial transformations while facing multiple risks (climate extreme events for loss biodiversity, threats against environmental leaders). To address this knowledge gap, we analyze the case of National Interethnic Network of Women for Environmental Defense, composed of 32 women leaders from diverse ethnic groups and territories in Colombia, and examine how the network’s structure and governance influence its sustainability, territorial actions, social capital, and advocacy capacity. Data was collected through a three-day participatory workshop, and fourteen semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using an innovative mixed-methods approach that combines Social Network Analysis (SNA), and discourse analysis. Findings show that although the network promotes solidarity and collective leadership through a horizontal model, it faces challenges due to its low relational density and dependence on a central node (an allied NGO) which raises concerns regarding long-term autonomy. Results also revealed differences in relationships patterns related to intersectionality factors. Nevertheless, participants report enhanced advocacy capacity, resource mobilization, and articulation with external actors. This research contributes to gender studies, environmental governance, and social networks by highlighting women’s pivotal role in collective action. It also motivates the debate on how an equitable and participatory organization such as women's networks can challenge traditional power structures and influence environmental policies as well as territorial actions.

Scholars of gender recognise that identities are intersectional, with social networks shaped by multiple intersecting structures of distinction and exclusion. In South Asia, caste is one such structure, operating as a mechanism of stratification that not only regulates access to material resources but also conditions the formation and reach of social ties. While much scholarship has examined caste-based inequalities in economic and political domains, less attention has been paid to how caste and class shape women’s social networks. Drawing on demographic, economic, and complete social network data from three field sites in rural South Asia—two in India and one in Nepal—this study examines how caste and class positionalities mediate women’s social ties beyond kinship and household structures.

Initial insights suggest that upper-caste women experience a narrowing of social networks due to restrictions on physical mobility and severance from natal kinship ties, leading to networks concentrated within the marital household and affinal relations. In contrast, lower-caste women, while similarly disconnected from natal networks, cultivate broader external ties beyond kinship structures, facilitated by greater mobility and the necessity of engagement in labour and community-based resource sharing. Class further complicates this pattern: families’ aspirations for social and economic mobility and differences in women’s labour lead to substantial variation both within and across communities. By mapping these variations, this study highlights the intersection of caste, class, and gender in shaping women’s social networks, offering a comparative perspective on the relational dimensions of social stratification in rural South Asia.

Tokenism theory explains how individuals from underrepresented groups experience bias in professional networks. This paper extends tokenism theory to network exchanges, arguing that gender bias in network benefits is influenced by women’s numerical representation and individual agency. We hypothesize that women in male-dominated networks receive fewer network benefits than men, but this disadvantage diminishes once women’s representation crosses a critical threshold. We further explore the role of agentic behaviors in mitigating these disadvantages. Specifically, we argue that increasing visibility and reducing information asymmetries help women counter biases that limit access to resources and referrals.

Our study contributes to tokenism theory by demonstrating how proactive behaviors can alter token dynamics in networks, shifting the focus from structural disadvantage to individual agency. Additionally, we advance network theory by highlighting how an individual’s status within their alters’ networks—not just their own network composition—shapes access to benefits. Our findings suggest that while agentic behaviors can reduce bias, they do not fully eliminate structural barriers.

This research has practical implications for fostering gender equity in professional networks. Organizations should create environments that encourage women’s participation and facilitate strategic interactions to mitigate bias. Future research should examine how these behaviors interact with network structures, perceptions of agency, and long-term career outcomes. By integrating agency into tokenism and network theories, this paper offers a dynamic perspective on how gender disparities in networks can be addressed.

Introduction

The TCH Pathways study examines linear and non-linear pathways into and beyond the Gender Identity Clinic. The aim was to map out the social ecosystem including other NHS, private healthcare, community and third sector services; identifying common sequences.

Methods

An ego network design was used to collect data on participants (egos) and the services they accessed for transgender affirming healthcare (alters). Services were grouped into broad categories, such as GPs and Gender Identity Clinics. Directed edges between alters were captured to represent referral pathways. Distinct pathways were counted. A single network was created to include all identified referral types, weighted by frequency of occurrence. Logistic multilevel modelling was used to predict the ego and alter level characteristics associated with service ratings.

Results

GPs were a frequent point of contact and referral to elsewhere, particularly direct referrals from GP to trans affirmative care, counselling, and GICs. However, there is a frequent GP to GP pathway, indicating a loop of multiple GP visits before being referred elsewhere. There is a notable pathway from GIC to trans affirmative care (albeit the long waiting lists). Statutory organisations seem to refer the patient-participant to informal support significantly. Finally there is a repeated referral between different forms of informal support. These complex healthcare pathways are a result of prolonged waitlists; symptomatic of an ‘Ailing administration’ that TNB and gender questioning people have grown to mistrust. As a result they take recourse to other hormone sources and ensuring that they present an acceptable gender story in order that they would be referred to the GIC by a GP and psychiatrically diagnosed so that they can be progressed to specialist services and receive gender affirming care.

This study investigates gender disparities in the field of communication through a comprehensive analysis of citation metrics, authorship patterns, team composition, and faculty salaries. We explore how gender influences research impact, collaboration dynamics, and career advancement within the field. Using a dataset of 62,359 papers from 121 communication journals, we examine trends in authorship and citations over time, revealing persistent gender-based differences. While female authors are increasingly represented in communication research, their work tends to receive fewer citations, particularly in sole-authored papers, compared to those written by men. However, this citation gap appears to narrow in larger and more diverse research teams.

Our findings also highlight a notable pattern of gender homophily in team formation, with single-gender research teams being more common than mixed-gender teams. This tendency raises important questions about collaboration networks and the inclusivity of research environments. Analyzing the top 10 communication journals, we observe a persistent underrepresentation of women and a citation advantage for male authors, particularly in high-impact journals. These disparities suggest structural challenges that may hinder women's visibility and influence in the field.

Additionally, faculty salary data from leading U.S. public universities reveal gender-based pay disparities, particularly at the Assistant Professor level, though these gaps decrease at higher academic ranks. Our study underscores the need for targeted efforts to promote gender equity in communication research, emphasizing inclusive collaboration, fair citation practices, and equitable compensation to create a more diverse and just academic environment.

This study investigates the impact of board interlocks on the relationship between female-chaired boards and corporate governance in UK companies, using both agency and resource dependency theories as theoretical frameworks. The research explores whether board interlocks, particularly those formed by companies sharing female directors, can mediate or enhance the association between female leadership on boards and governance scores. The findings suggest that board interlocks do not act as a moderator but rather as a positive amplifier, boosting the relationship between female-chaired boards and corporate governance scores. Specifically, companies with female chairs and board interlocks involving both male and female directors tend to exhibit higher corporate governance scores. This indicates that interlocks between companies can enhance the positive effects of female leadership on governance. In contrast, the analysis reveals that board interlocks involving only female directors do not show significant effects, and for companies with male chairs, an increase in interlocks with female directors results in a decrease in governance scores. The study also contrasts the perspectives of agency theory, which views board interlocks as detrimental due to the potential dilution of directors' monitoring capacity, with resource dependency theory, which regards interlocks as beneficial sources of knowledge and resources. The results underscore the importance of both the type and extent of board interlocks, particularly those involving a mix of male and female directors, in shaping corporate governance outcomes. Ultimately, the study contributes to understanding how the board interlocks, especially when combined with gender diversity, influence corporate governance structures.