Many social and personal factors contribute to the achievement of an elite position. Informal factors are examined in this chapter, specifically mentors and personal contacts. For the women in top positions and men in comparable posts in the sample, it is asked whether social capital, in the form of personal contacts with powerful actors, has been equally important to women and men in elite positions. Gender differences and similarities in the presence of mentors and in the breadth of elite contacts is also examined. The expectation was that men would have more social capital of both types. In the case of mentors, however, women generally reported having more mentors of varying types than did their men peers. On the second measure of social capital, elite contacts in the past year, men generally reported wider ranges of personal contacts with other elites in the political, economic and civil society spheres.
Aberbach, J. D. , Putnam, R. D and Rockman, B. A. ( 1981 ) Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press .
2.
Acker, J. ( 1990 ) ‘ Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations ’, Gender and Society4 ( 2 ): 139 – 158 .
3.
Bauer, T. N. ( 1999 ) ‘ Perceived Mentoring Fairness: Relationships with Gender, Mentoring Type, Mentoring Experience, and Mentoring Needs ’, Sex Roles40 : 211 – 225 .
4.
Bourdieu, P. ( 1984 ) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press .
5.
Burke, R. J. and Mckeen, C. A. ( 1990 ) ‘ Mentoring in Organizations: Implications for Women ’, Journal of Business Ethics9 : 317 – 332 .
6.
Catalyst (2002) ‘Women in Corporate Leadership in Europe’; at: www.catalystwomen.org/press_room/press_releases/wicl_europe.htm
7.
Cohen, D. and Prusak, L. ( 2001 ) In Good Company. How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work . Boston, MA : Harvard Business School Press .
8.
Dreher, G. and Ash, R. ( 1990 ) ‘ A Comparative Study of Mentoring among Men and Women in Managerial Professional and Technical Positions ’, Journal of Applied Psychology75 : 539 – 546 .
9.
Epstein, C. F. ( 1988 ) Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order . New Haven, CT and London : Yale University Press .
10.
Fagenson, E. A. and Jackson, J. J. ( 1994 ) ‘ The Status of Women Managers in the United States ’, in N. J. Adler and D. N. Izraeli (eds) Competitive Frontiers: Women Managers in a Global Economy , pp. 388 – 404 . Oxford : Blackwell .
11.
Higley, J. , Deacon, D. and Smart, D. ( 1979 ) Elites in Australia . London : Routledge and Kegan Paul .
12.
Higley, J. , Hoffmann-Lange, U. , Kadushin, C. and Moore, G. ( 1991 ) ‘ Elite Integration in Stable Democracies ’, European Sociological Review77 : 35 – 48 .
13.
Ibarra, H. ( 1992 ) ‘ Homophily and Differential Returns: Sex Differences in Network Structure and Access in an Advertising Firm ’, Administrative Science Quarterly37 : 422 – 447 .
14.
Kalbfleisch, P. J. ( 2000 ) ‘ Similarities and Attractions in Business and Academic Environments: Same and Cross-Sex Mentoring ’, Review of Business21 , 2: 58 – 61 .
15.
Kanter, R. M. ( 1977 ) Men and Women of the Corporation . New York : Basic Books .
16.
Kram, K. E. ( 1985 ) Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organizational Life . Glenview, IL : Scott, Foresman .
17.
Lin, N. ( 2001 ) ‘ Building a Network Theory of Social Capital ’, in N. Lin , K. Cook and R. S. Burt (eds) Social Capital: Theory and Research . New York : Aldine de Gruyter .
18.
Martin, P. Y. and Collinson, D. ( 1999 ) ‘ Gender and Sexuality in Organizations ’, in M. M. Ferree , J. Lorber and B. Hess (eds) Revisioning Gender , pp. 285 – 310 . Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage .
19.
Miller, J. ( 1986 ) Pathways in the Workplace: The Effects of Gender and Race on Access to Organizational Resources . London : Cambridge University Press .
20.
Mobley, M. G. , Jaret, C. , Marsh, K. and Lim, Y. Y. ( 1994 ) ‘ Mentoring, Job Satisfaction, Gender, and the Legal Profession ’, Sex Roles31 ( 1–2 ): 79 – 98 .
21.
Moore, G. ( 1979 ) ‘ The Structure of a National Elite Network ’, American Sociological Review44 : 673 – 692 .
22.
Moore, G. ( 1988 ) ‘ Women in Elite Positions: Insiders or Outsiders? ’, Sociological Forum3 : 566 – 585 .
23.
Moore, G. and White, D. ( 2000 ) ‘ Interpersonal Contacts ’, in M. Vianello and G. Moore (eds) Gendering Elites: Economic and Political Leadership in 27 Industrialised Societies . London : Macmillan .
24.
Moore, G. and White, D. ( 2001 ) ‘ Geschlechterungleichheit und Elite-Netzwerke in Vierundzwanzig Industriegesellschaften’ [Gender Inequality and Elite Networks in Twenty-Four Industrialized Societies] , Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und SozialpsychologieFall : 136 – 151 .
25.
Noe, R. A. ( 1988 ) ‘ Women and Mentoring: A Review and Research Agenda ’, Academy of Management Review13 : 65 – 78 .
26.
O’neil, R. M. and Blake-Beard, S. D. ( 2002 ) ‘ Gender Barriers to the Female Mentor: Male Protégé Relationship ’, Journal of Business Ethics37 ( l, part 2 ): 51 – 63 .
27.
Palgi, M. ( 2000 ) ‘ Top People and Mentors ’, in M. Vianello and G. Moore (eds) Gendering Elites: Economic and Political Leadership in 27 Industrialized Societies . London : Macmillan .
28.
Putnam, R. ( 2000 ) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community . New York : Simon and Schuster .
29.
Ragins, B. R. and Cotton, J. L. ( 1993 ) ‘ Gender and Willingness to Mentor ’, Journal of Management19 : 97 – 111 .
30.
Ragins, B. R. and Cotton, J. L. ( 1999 ) ‘ Mentor Functions and Outcomes: A Comparison of Men and Women in Formal and Informal Mentoring Relationships ’, Journal of Applied Psychology84 ( 4 ): 529 – 550 .
31.
Ragins, B. R. , Cotton, J. L. and Miller, J. S. ( 2000 ) ‘ Marginal Mentoring: The Effects of Type of Mentor, Quality of Relationship, and Program Design on Work and Career Attitudes ’, Academy of Management Journal43 ( 6 ): 1177 – 1194 .
32.
Walsh, A. M. and Borokowski, S. C. ( 1999 ) ‘ Cross-Gender Mentoring and Career Development in the Health Care Industry ’, Health Care Management Review24 ( 3 ): 7 – 17 .
33.
Watkins, P. E. ( 1984 ) ‘ Culture, Culture Resources and the Labor Market: A Study of a Christian Brothers College ’, Australian Journal of Education28 : 66 – 77 .
34.
Wildenmann, R. , Kaase, M. , Hoffmann-Lange, U. , Kutteroff, A. and Wolf, G. ( 1982 ) Führungsschicht in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1981 . Mannheim : Lehrstuhl für Politische Wissenschaft und International Vergleichende Sozialforschung .
