Are there too many Daves in research?

A fascinating story and great research! My ethnographic study of engineers incorporating Social Network Analysis finds similar inequalities in engineering consulting organisations. I identify gender imbalance in informal networks result in inequalities for women engineers in being assigned to project teams and hence professional development through challenging and interesting work. Men maintain mostly homophious networks and the same men are selected for projects time after time. Additionally many men do not identify women as co-workers on project teams and women’s lack of connections with powerful and influential people in their organisation (the majority of which are men) result in women’s invisibility as skilled and experienced professionals. Hence many women are not selected for project teams particularly those for high-profile and iconic projects. Women need to work at building their informal network connections with colleagues and potential clients. Men need to make a conscious effort to recognise their female colleagues and their skills.