Academic Recommendations: Males and Females as Judges and Judged.

That letters of recommendation might differ systematically according to the sex of the writer and the sex of the person recommended seems logical. Dipboye and colleagues1 have shown that raters' evaluations of applicants' r£sum6s are affected by sex and physical attractiveness; Schmitt and Hill2 have demonstrated that ratings of women appear to vary according to the proportion of men in the evaluating group; Cecil8 has shown that raters emphasize different criteria when they evaluate male and female candidates. Evidence from studies by Norton et al4 and Frank and Drucker5 suggests that women are less lenient raters than men are; Simpson6 has documented a clear bias, among academics, against women candidates. Lunneborg and Lillie7 show that the dossiers of 12 per cent of the male candidates in their sample contained sexist comments while such comments were found in the dossiers of 29 per cent of the female candidates. Hoffman8 found instance after instance of irrelevant and negative comment about women. Solmon9 also documents horrifying examples. Between 1972 and 1977, some colleagues in a women's studies program at a major university had an opportunity to examine a great many dossiers for women and for men in the course of recruiting in a variety of fields. The requirements were spelled out clearly in the job descriptions: the appointees would teach and do research both in the women's studies program and in a traditional department. The Model