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Letters of Recommendation in Academe: Do Women and Men Write in Different Languages?
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Letters of Recommendation in Academe: Do Women and Men Write in Different Languages?

Susan E. Bell, C. Suzanne Cole and Liliane Floge
The American sociologist, v 23(3)
01 Oct 1992
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691910

Abstract

College instruction Gender equality Intellect Letters of support Men Reference letters Research skills Womens rights Womens studies Working women
The present study analyzes seventy-eight letters of recommendation sent to a department of sociology and anthropology for six replacement and two tenure-track positions. The sample consists of fifteen pairs of letters written for women and twenty-four pairs written for men. Each pair of letters includes one written by a woman and one written by a man for the same candidate. Men and women wrote letters differently, but their letters also varied by the gender of the applicant. The concept of tokenism, Gilligan's theory about moral reasoning, and Acker's discussion of gendered organizations are used to interpret these differences.

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