Gender Bias In Letters Of Recommendation?

A team of researchers claim there is. Specifically, they conclude that both men and women are more likely to use “doubt raisers” in recommendations of women than they are in those for men.

For example, they are more likely to use words like “might” for women and adjectives like superb for men. Juan Madera from the University of Houston led the research on the project, the results of which appear in the Journal of Business and Psychology.

The other members of the team were Michelle Hebl, Heather Dial and Randi Martin from Rice, as well as Virginia Valian from Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

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