Are Recommendation Letters Biased Against Women?

From the Wall Street Journal | By Paula Szuchman | Nov 15, 2010


To Whom it May Concern: I’m writing to recommend so-and-so for a job. Over the years, so-and-so has proved sympathetic and helpful, always taking direction well and maintaining relationships.

To Whom it May Concern: I’m writing to recommend so-and-so for a job. Over the years, so-and-so has proved confident and outspoken, always influencing others and initiating tasks.

If you were the person hiring, which of those two candidates would you be more likely to bring on board?

The second one—at least according to a new study about how the language of recommendation letters differs depending on the gender of the candidate, and how that language ultimately affects hiring decisions. Researchers at Rice University reviewed 624 letters for 194 applicants for faculty positions at a U.S. university. They found women were described in more “communal” terms (words such as “affectionate”, “helpful”, “kind”, “sympathetic” and “nurturing”) and men in more “agentic” terms (“confident”, “aggressive”, “independent”, “ outspoken” and “intellectual”).

Moreover, the more communal-sounding a candidate—or, let’s call a spade a spade, the more like a chick—the less favorably they were viewed. The researchers controlled for variables such as work and educational experience, publications and honors, and the more communal-sounding candidates still received lower evaluations.

What’s especially disturbing about this, in my view, isn’t that such cooperative qualities are underappreciated by those doing the hiring (at least in academia),  it’s that women are viewed this way to begin with. It seems unlikely to me that most of the women being recommended were actually more kind or sympathetic than the men. Yet there were clearly perceived that way.

By now, the conundrum working women face is old hat: behave “like men” and risk being called too cut-throat or aggressive; behave “like women” and risk not getting ahead. But seeing the stereotyping show up so insidiously in letters of recommendation—a two-dimensional depiction of a job candidate, at best—just makes me sad.

I can’t remember the last time someone asked me to write a letter on his or her behalf. But next time, I’ll be sure to stick to the facts: “If you’re looking for the perfect person for the job, Jane’s your man.”

Readers, what was the last letter of recommendation you wrote? Was it a pain or a pleasure? And be honest—is there ever a difference in your descriptions of men vs. women?