It is that time of year of writing letters of recommendation for those applying for grad school or scholarships. I thought I would share some research on letters of recommendation.
While letters can provide insight into a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, research shows that they are rife with bias. Letters have a tendency to favor men over women, Whites over people of color, and applicants from research-intensive over non-research institutions. For example, letters often describe women as helpful, pleasant team players, while men are often described with standout terms like “brilliant,” “focused,” and having “potential.” It is helpful to be aware of these biases when we are both writing and reading letters of recommendation.
Please read and share the attached handouts and articles, as it may help with writing and reading letters with a greater understanding of the biases involved.
Some internships are no longer requiring letters of recommendation due to biases inherent in letter-writing, the disproportionate burden placed on faculty at smaller institutions, and the trouble that students sometimes have in obtaining letters. On a related note, if your graduate school or program application process requires letters of recommendation, be sure to educate selection committee members of potential issues and biases.
Hope that the attached handouts are helpful, along with the links and article.
Attached are:
- 2 Handouts with quick guidelines
- 1 article by Houser et al. on letters to an REU program.
More details:
- This newspaper article, "Study reveals implicit gender bias in recommendation letters“ is on a five-year study of 1,000 letters of recommendation for postdoctoral fellowships in the geosciences. It found that female applicants were only half as likely to receive “excellent” letters compared to male applicants, for example, describing applicants as having a “thorough understanding of the subject” versus being a “brilliant scientist and role model” or a “trailblazer.” The author attributes this to implicit or unconscious gender bias (Dutt et al. 2016).
- Chris Houser’s 2018 study of the letters of recommendation to his REU program (see attached PDF) found that letters written for students who were male, White, from research universities - and more often accepted to the REU - describe the productivity of the students with greater certainty and include a greater number of quotes from student work. Letters about others (women, people of color, students from non-research universities) include more positive emotion and describe the insight of the student, but include more discrepancy and tentative statements.
References:
Houser, C. & K. Lemmons. 2018. Implicit bias in letters of recommendation for an undergraduate research internship, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42:5, 585-595. (PDF attached)
Kuo, M. 2016. Recommendation Letters Reflect Gender Bias. Science News.
