This study investigates the role of large-team collaboration in shaping early-career scholars’ career development, with a focus on gender disparities. Using publication and collaboration data from SciSciNet in Computer Science, we capture the social capital accumulation process in academia with a neighborhood-based centrality metric and publication counts. Synthetic difference-in-differences (SDID) is applied to estimate the impact of early experience in large-team collaboration on subsequent research careers. Results indicate that junior scholars participating in large-team research significantly improve their network centrality, indicating more frequent collaborations with influential scholars, and produce approximately 0.75 more publications per year. Meanwhile, we document persistent gender gaps: men are 16% more likely to access large-team collaborations. These findings highlight large-team collaboration as both a source of career acceleration and a mechanism of gender inequality. We conclude with implications for equity promotion and strategies enabling more inclusive collaboration.

This study examines the gender distribution within collaboration and mentorship networks across several scientific disciplines, namely Physics, Material Science, Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology and Psychology in the last two decades. Our analysis reveals that the proportions of women in these fields range from 24% to 49%. Despite these variations, all disciplines show evidence of gender-based homophily in their networks, and there are indications for the presence of a glass ceiling effect. Specifically, we observed that women are under-represented in high-status positions with respect to their number of mentees in mentorship networks and their scientific contributions within collaboration networks. These findings highlight longstanding gender disparities in scientific collaboration and mentoring practices, along with cumulative impacts on measured performances of researchers across disciplines. Using a network approach, this study not only extends the methodological work on quantifying gender gaps but also provides actionable insights for the design of more inclusive systems with gender-equitable access to mentorship and collaboration opportunities.