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How to decrease bias in academic job searches
Last week we mentioned that unconscious bias can affect academic hiring decisions. Today, we’re following up with a look at an amazing brochure on combating discrimination in academic hiring. This brochure (PDF) was put together by the Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. This document should be read by anyone involved in faculty hiring: it gives a good summary of research on unconscious bias and suggestions for ways to decrease discrimination in hiring. It even includes references to the primary literature!
There are three research studies mentioned that looked an unconscious discrimination related to academic hiring:
- A clever study asked 238 psychology professors to evaluate the (fictional) CV of a job applicant. The CV was randomly given a male or female name, but the other information was always the same. The male “applicant” got higher ratings in all categories (research, teaching, and service) than the woman. The man was more likely to receive a recommendation to hire. Note that the professors who did the ratings were 50% female: women are sexist, too.
- Trix and Psenka studied 300 letters of recommendation written for faculty applicants to “a large U.S. medical school”. The women’s letters were less positive, shorter, and referred to the women as students and teachers. Letters for men referred to the men as scholars and professionals.
- Wenneras and Wold studied how postdoc fellowships were awarded in Sweden (by the Medical Research Council). All applicants were rated; women didn’t get the same rating as the men unless they a) had many more publications or b) personally knew someone on the evaluation panel.
After giving this compelling evidence that there is unconscious bias, the brochure has multiple suggestions for less-biased faculty hiring. Our favorites:
Develop evaluation criteria prior to evaluating candidates and apply them consistently to all applicants.
Evaluate each candidate’s entire application; don’t depend too heavily on only one element such as the letter of recommendation, or the prestige of the degree-granting institution or post-doctoral program.
Periodically evaluate your judgments, determine whether qualified women and underrepresented minorities are included in your pool, and consider whether evaluation biases and assumptions are influencing your decisions.
For this last point, there is a list of questions to consider when evaluating one’s judgements.
When we become rulers of the universe, everyone involved in academic hiring will have to read and discuss this useful document. (Well, if we were rulers of the universe, we would have other ways to address discrimination in hiring.) This brochure is perfect for use in faculty hiring because it is short, to the point, and has excellent practical suggestions.