Gendered collaboration networks and their consequences on conflicts between academics

In academia, a major field of knowledge production, the quality of interactions among coworkers plays a critical role. Negative ties, such as conflicts or avoidance between researchers, can impede the progress of research projects, and adversely affect individual career advancement. Our study reveals that in the academic sector, these negative relations are not "gender-neutral" as they are experienced 47% more often by women. Using a large representative survey linked to official scientometric records from Hungary, we demonstrate that the conditions under which women and men experience these negative relations differ. Women experience more conflicts if they act as brokers in scientific collaborations, and fewer conflicts when they are members of cohesive groups. These factors, however, do not influence the number of conflicts for men. Thus, we can argue, that while being in a broker position holds the promise for scientific success, it comes with the price of more workplace conflicts for women. Regarding the role of gender diversity and cross-gender collaboration, we find that women report less negative relations when they collaborate with fellow women if they are a small minority, but in diverse fields, cross-gender collaboration comes with fewer conflicts.