Redefining reciprocity through a gender lens: the VVV model of social exchange

Social exchange theory has profoundly shaped our understanding of workplace relationships, yet its gender-neutral assumptions remain largely unexamined. This study challenges these assumptions by highlighting systemic gender disparities within the reciprocity cycle, in which women are often assigned low-prestige, taxing, and career-irrelevant tasks. To address this gap, we propose the VVV (Visibility-Valuation-Virtue) model. Visibility highlights how women’s contributions are frequently overlooked; valuation exposes the systemic devaluation of women’s work compared to men’s; and virtue examines how moral norms perpetuate these inequities. Together, these factors reinforce gendered disadvantages in social exchanges. The VVV model extends social exchange theory by demonstrating how gender shapes the processes of asking, giving, recognizing, reciprocating, and reacting to (non)reciprocation. It provides a parsimonious framework for re-examining research fields heavily reliant on social exchange theories and offers guidance for organizations seeking to minimize the gender gap.