Do you have more women than men friends at work? How about in the communities where you spend your free time?

All that women power could be hurting your chances when you’re looking for a job.

 

It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman -- if you’re relying on your social network to help you find work and your contacts are mostly female, research from Stanford University shows your odds are weaker.

Why?

It’s not because your girlfriends won’t help you.

They will, to the best of their ability. If you’re a woman, they’ll try even more than they’d assist a man. In fact, if you’re a woman, you probably consider the sisterhood your go-to team.

“Women are four times more likely to ask for help from a female contact,” says sociologist Lindsey Trimble, in this post by post-doc Christin Munsch at The Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

Yet, if you want to expand your career opportunities, there’s a reason to start networking with more men.

It has to do with access and resources.

Your women friends can’t help you find a job they don’t know about, and they can’t hook you up with resources they don’t have.

For instance, how many of your female contacts are in high-paying positions of authority and power? It’s no secret women have been shut out of the sweeter employment situations due to gender and wage discrimination. Add to that a tendency women have to get corralled into particular occupations.

Women also may not be able to draw on same kind of the influential networks men have.

It gets worse. A woman’s referral seems to convert less often.

When you act on a job lead from a woman, Trimble’s recent study shows your chances of actually landing the position are lower.

Of 600 people Trimble surveyed in Washington State, all the job seekers  -- men AND women -- were most likely to receive an offer when they networked with a man.

Trimble is a member of The Clayman Institute’s working group on Redesigning and Redefining Work.