Curated list of research and data on gender and social network analysis

A good introduction is the chapter "Social Network Analysis and Feminist Methodology", by Fancher and Faris (2022) in "Methods and Methodologies for Research in Digital Writing and Rhetoric" by Crystal VanKooten and Victor Del Hierro (eds). This work highlights how SNA "can be useful as a digital research method in conjunction with feminist methodolo­gies, especially those that attend to questions of power, community, solidarity, justice, and inclusion".

SNA has become a valuable tool for feminist and intersectional studies within digital humanities. Literature and textual researcher Katherine Bode’s work, utilizes SNA to explore gendered power structures within social and historical datasets. In the work "A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History" (Bode, 2018), network analysis reveals patterns of exclusion and dominance based on gender, shedding light on the peripheral roles that women often occupy within intellectual and social networks despite their significant contributions. By mapping these networks, Bode and other scholars in this field have exposed the systemic biases that have marginalized women’s roles in historical and cultural narratives.

Gender and social media have also been studied per se, but also as network analysis, where this project has highlighted the importance of gathering data, making it valid and reliable (not at least ethically): "The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is working on a large scale project to comprehensively document the #metoo movement and the accompanying political, legal, and social battles.", see https://www.schlesinger-metooproject-radcliffe.org/.