Astronomy
My wife pointed out to me an interesting article in the May 2015 issue of Science about gender bias when writing letters of recommendation. It is by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt and describes her personal experience in reviewing graduate student proposals for small research grants. She found systematic differences in letters of recommendation for female and male proposers that were detrimental to the females.
Here are some specifics. Ten percent of the 60 proposers had one or more letter with inappropriate content for the purpose of the letter and all such cases were in letters for the women. Prof. McNutt cites examples of mentioning that the candidate was "so good to her elderly mother", "spending time in nature with her husband and her animals friends". Another discussed the candidate's balancing being a scientists and a mother. Also, the language was on-average different between men and women in a detrimental way for women. In some cases, the women got adjectives such as "friendly", "kind", "pleasant", "humble", and frequently "nice". Typical language for the male candidates, and also many of the females candidates, included "brilliant", "creative", "hard-working", insightful" and "showing leadership".
Interestingly, the same bias was noted in letters from male and female writers. This may seem surprising at first, but is actually quite common in the world of unconscious bias. For example, in my blog last month (April 20, 2015) it was noted that female and male professors show about the same bias when it comes to inviting candidates of different genders to see them during campus visits.
What can be done to combat such pervasive, but subtle, bias in the way we treat young people entering science? One way is to be aware of it. High profile articles such as this one in Science help a lot. Next time I write a recommendation letter, I will pay more attention to the words and style.
My wife suggested an easy way to check if the language has biases when writing a letter for a female student or colleague. Replace all the she's with he's and all the name occurrences with a male name, then read the letter. Even a single time doing this can turn up slight wording and style differences used for different genders and be a a lesson for future letters.
- Don?t Masculinize The Letter Of Recommendation: Towards A Truly Gender-brave Science Community
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- Aaswomen Newsletter For May 22, 2015
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September marks the beginning of the academic year in most universities, and soon the cycle of postdoc and faculty recruitment will start. Search committees will be formed, candidates recruited, short lists formed, candidates interviewed, and hiring...
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Astronomy
Letter of Recommendation for Letters of Recommendation
My wife pointed out to me an interesting article in the May 2015 issue of Science about gender bias when writing letters of recommendation. It is by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt and describes her personal experience in reviewing graduate student proposals for small research grants. She found systematic differences in letters of recommendation for female and male proposers that were detrimental to the females.
Here are some specifics. Ten percent of the 60 proposers had one or more letter with inappropriate content for the purpose of the letter and all such cases were in letters for the women. Prof. McNutt cites examples of mentioning that the candidate was "so good to her elderly mother", "spending time in nature with her husband and her animals friends". Another discussed the candidate's balancing being a scientists and a mother. Also, the language was on-average different between men and women in a detrimental way for women. In some cases, the women got adjectives such as "friendly", "kind", "pleasant", "humble", and frequently "nice". Typical language for the male candidates, and also many of the females candidates, included "brilliant", "creative", "hard-working", insightful" and "showing leadership".
Graphic from Science May 2015 issue (McNutt)
Interestingly, the same bias was noted in letters from male and female writers. This may seem surprising at first, but is actually quite common in the world of unconscious bias. For example, in my blog last month (April 20, 2015) it was noted that female and male professors show about the same bias when it comes to inviting candidates of different genders to see them during campus visits.
What can be done to combat such pervasive, but subtle, bias in the way we treat young people entering science? One way is to be aware of it. High profile articles such as this one in Science help a lot. Next time I write a recommendation letter, I will pay more attention to the words and style.
My wife suggested an easy way to check if the language has biases when writing a letter for a female student or colleague. Replace all the she's with he's and all the name occurrences with a male name, then read the letter. Even a single time doing this can turn up slight wording and style differences used for different genders and be a a lesson for future letters.
- Don?t Masculinize The Letter Of Recommendation: Towards A Truly Gender-brave Science Community
The below is a guest blog post by Professors Andy Elby and Ayush Gupta. Andy Elby is a Associate Professor of Teaching & Learning, Policy & Leadership and Affiliate Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. His research...
- Aaswomen Newsletter For May 22, 2015
AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of May 22, 2015 eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer This week's issues: 1. Letter of Recommendation for Letters of Recommendation2....
- Gender Bias In Guest Observer Programs
A recent paper on arXiv (1409.3528) by I. Neill Reid at STScI is an eye-opener. It presents a detailed study of gender bias in HST guest observer selection. The results are very clear: female PIs are systematically less successful in winning...
- Advice To Search Committees
September marks the beginning of the academic year in most universities, and soon the cycle of postdoc and faculty recruitment will start. Search committees will be formed, candidates recruited, short lists formed, candidates interviewed, and hiring...
- 'tis The Season...
...for job hunting and writing recommendation letters! So I want to highlight Kelle Cruz's post at Astro Better on advice for writing good recommendation letters, particularly regarding letters written for women. The first link is about a study showing...