Do women and men differ in their brokering behavior? Integrating the literatures on gender, self-construal, and social networks, we theorize that gender differences in relational interdependence produce different patterns of helpful brokering among women versus men. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that tie strength moderates the effect of gender on two types of helpful brokering: helping others form new network ties (intermediary brokering) and helping others repair strained network ties (conciliatory brokering). In both experiments, the observed gender by tie strength interactions were driven by gender differences in network-broadening behavior (i.e., willingness to help weak ties) rather than network-deepening behavior (i.e., willingness to help strong ties). Experiment 2 provides evidence that differences in relational self-construal mediate the effect of gender on brokering behavior. We discuss the implications of these findings for gender inequality in organizations and in society.

女性和男性的经纪行为是否有所不同？整合关于性别、自我建构和社交网络的文献，我们推断，关系相互依赖中的性别差异会在女性和男性之间产生不同的帮助中介模式。两个实验检验了这样一种假设，即关系强度可以调节性别对两种有益中介的影响：帮助他人形成新的网络关系（中介中介）和帮助他人修复紧张的网络关系（调解中介）。在这两个实验中，通过关系强度相互作用观察到的性别是由网络扩展行为（即，帮助弱关系的意愿）而不是网络深化行为（即，帮助强关系的意愿）中的性别差异驱动的。实验 2 提供的证据表明，关系自我构念的差异介导了性别对中介行为的影响。我们讨论了这些发现对组织和社会中性别不平等的影响。