Women use professional and social networks to push past the glass ceiling
March 17, 2026Women may need broader networks to break through. A new Patterns study draws on 20 years of data from more than 19,000 corporate employees and finds that networks matter for everyone, but women rely on more complex social networks than men to reach director level. Women with professional ties to other female leaders were also more likely to be promoted.
The gap is still real. Despite incremental improvements in the past decade, women remain underrepresented in corporate boardrooms. Networks are vital for advancement, but it has been unclear which ones matter most, or whether some networks may even hinder efforts to reduce gender disparity.
The dataset is unusually deep. Researchers analyzed publicly available leadership data from 772 publicly traded Canadian firms (2000–2022), covering 19,395 senior employees and their education, work history, and social engagement such as memberships in clubs, organizations, or charities. A deep learning model mapped how networks evolved over time and what was associated with promotion.
Men and women advance through different signals. After comparing people with similar backgrounds, the likelihood a man became a director was driven mainly by current employment. For women, past employment plus current and past social networks weighed more heavily.