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This session will last 60 minutes, with the potential to extend (maximum 90 minutes) if discussions are lively and participants are engaged.
Research has found bias in recommendation letters for women vs. men. Letters for men were more likely to contain words that emphasized their research skills and accomplishments, while letters for women were more likely to include communal and teaching-focused language (Trix and Psenka, 2003). Letters for women portrayed candidates as "supportive" rather than "leaders," or focusing on their teaching abilities rather than their research achievements. Additionally, recommendation letters for women tend to be shorter and contain more doubt-raising language, such as hedges and hesitations (Dutt et al., 2016; Beddoes and Pemberton, 2017). Since doubt raisers are more frequent in letters for women than men, women are at a disadvantage relative to men in their applications for academic positions (Madera, Hebl, Dial, Martin, & Valian, 2019). Thus, “letter writers are gatekeepers who can improve or hinder women’s progress…” (Madera, Hebl, Dial, Martin, & Valian, 2019). Since AIS community leaders are often asked to write letters of recommendation or external letters reviewing candidates for promotion, a workshop discussing these issues and how people can ensure they are unbiased when writing these letters is a crucial part of the ImPACT IT grant’s implicit and systemic bias training. Based on a pilot letter-writing workshop with leaders from the AIS College of Academic Leadership, we incorporated attendees’ feedback and that of Dr. Metcalf, a consultant on social justice in STEM who helped in the development of the workshop, we have made modifications to the workshop. This revised workshop is for additional AIS Community Leaders, who are often engaged in external letter writing and reviews. AIS leaders and senior scholars are essential to engage because we look at “community leaders as agents of inclusion.”
AIS Community Leaders are encouraged use this link to RSVP for the session.
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