To cite this article: Kaitland M. Byrd (2016) Binge drinking in and out of college: An examination of social control and differential association on binge drinking behaviors between college students and their non-college peers, Sociological Spectrum, 36:4,[191][192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207]
Background
Previous work has demonstrated letters of recommendation for women in
academic medicine are shorter and emphasize communal traits over grindstone
or agentic traits.
Objective
To determine if there are sex-based differences in letters of recommendation
written for applicants applying to pulmonary critical care medicine
fellowships and if the sex of the letter writer impacts these
differences.
Methods
All fellowship applications submitted to a pulmonary critical care medicine
fellowship program in 2020 were included in this study. The applicant
demographics and self-reported accomplishments were extracted from their
application. The sex of letter writers was identified through public online
searches. Word count and language differences in the letters of
recommendation were analyzed for each applicant using the Linguistic Inquiry
and Word Count (LIWC2015) program. Multivariable linear regressions were
performed controlling for applicant characteristics to identify if applicant
sex was associated with total word counts and total agentic word counts.
Results
Of the 529 complete applications, 2,024 letters of recommendation were
reviewed. A majority of the applicants (70%,
n
= 370/530) and letter writers
(75%,
n
= 1,515/2,024) were
male. When adjusting for applicant demographic and accomplishments, female
applicants had longer letters of recommendation (30.91 words longer,
95% confidence interval [CI], 1.53–60.29;
P
= 0.04) and more supportive letters
(3.27 words longer, 95% CI, 1.59–4.95;
P
< 0.01) as compared with male
applicants. Female letter writers wrote longer and more supportive letters
than male letter writers, and this difference was greatest for female
applicants.
Conclusion
Female applicants received longer and more supportive letters of
recommendation. Further work is needed to understand if this finding is the
beginning of a change in the letters of recommendation for female
applicants.
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