Network Logic - Index of

Network logic
area? Or, to put it another way, why do networks matter when it
comes to inequality?
The answer lies in the role of networks in distributing power,
resources and opportunity across a wider system. Historically,
patterns of social connectivity have been instrumental in the
production and reproduction of gender disadvantage, an idea most
commonly expressed in the phrase the ‘old boy network’ (OBN).
When first coined in the mid-nineteenth century, this phrase referred
specifically to the alumni of an elite educational institution, whose
shared educational backgrounds and common affiliations naturally
translated into an informal system of favours and mutual support
throughout later life.
Although these types of networks still exist and retain some
influence in certain quarters, as a concept, the OBN has gained a
wider meaning as familiar shorthand for all forms of male power in
public life and the workplace. Today, the patterns of social
connectivity among men that are of most concern for equality in
Britain’s workplaces are less likely to be tied to the public school or
the gentleman’s club than ever before. Instead, they tend to reflect
embedded forms of sociability that do not formally exclude women
but, combined with unequal caring roles in the home and women’s
often asymmetrical working patterns, contribute to the concentration
of power in male hands. In other words, these processes often create
organisational cultures that value and reward qualities or behaviours
that women are less likely to exhibit than men; that require, as US law
professor Susan Estrich puts it, women’s ‘adaptation to a male
comfort zone’. 8
In this sense, the new girl networks are not mirror images of their
male counterparts, as is sometimes supposed. While many supporters
believe that women can and should employ some of the same tactics
as the OBN, particularly with regard to using one’s contacts
instrumentally, few networks aspire to achieving the same hegemony
for women that men have traditionally enjoyed in the workplace.
Women’s networks have transparent structures and formal status, and
exist primarily for the purpose of supporting women’s networking
122 Demos