Assessing Gender Bias in Particle Physics and Social Science Recommendations for Academic Jobs

TL;DR

This study compares gender bias in recommendation letters across particle physics and social sciences, finding minimal lexical differences but notable disparities in characterizations, especially highlighting positive bias towards women in social sciences.

Contribution

It introduces new measures for analyzing gendered language and provides a comparative analysis of bias in two distinct academic disciplines.

Findings

Few lexical gender differences in letters.

Women in social sciences are portrayed more positively.

Women in EPP are often described as 'brilliant'.

Abstract

We investigated gender bias in letters of recommendation as a possible cause of the under-representation of women in Experimental Particle Physics (EPP), where about 15% of faculty are female -- well below the 60% level in psychology and sociology. We analyzed 2,206 letters in EPP and these social sciences using standard lexical measures as well as two new measures: author status and an open-ended search for gendered language. In contrast to former studies, women were not depicted as more communal, less agentic, or less standout. Lexical measures revealed few gender differences in either discipline. The open-ended analysis revealed disparities favoring women in social science and men in EPP. However, female EPP candidates were characterized as "brilliant" in nearly three times as many letters as men.