A&S Faculty Recruiting Workshop
• OU Climate Survey
– Lori Snyder
• Implicit Bias and Better Practices
– Sheena Murphy
• Experiences of OU Dept. of Philosophy
– Wayne Riggs and Stephen Ellis
Factors which may impact the
impartiality of your search process
Sheena Murphy
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Experiments on the influences of race and gender on hiring
o
o
o
“Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students”, Corinne
A. Moss-Racusina, John F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoll, Mark J.
Graham, and Jo Handelsman, Proceedings of National Academy of
Sciences, 109 16474 (2012).
“The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job
Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study”, Rhea
E. Steinpreis, Katie A. Anders, and Dawn Ritzke, Sex Roles 41, 509
(1999).
“Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A
Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination”, Marianne
Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, American Economic Review, 94
991 (2004).
Experiment on Gender Bias for Academic Scientists:
Details of Study
Mythical Application
for a lab manager position, submitted by an
“undergrad science major” with stated intention to
attend grad school
 evaluated by 127 U.S. men and women
 in biology, chemistry or physics departments
 from 3 private, 3 public, large, Research-Intensive
universities
“Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students”, Corinne A. Moss-Racusina, John
F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoll, Mark J. Graham, and Jo Handelsman, Proceedings of National
Academy of Sciences, 109 16474 (2012).
Experiment on Gender Bias for Academic Scientists: Results
1-7 (low-high) Scale
John was
• more competent
• more hireable
• deserving of more
mentoring
than Jennifer
5
4
3
John
Jennifer
2
1
0
Competance
Hireability
Mentoring
Experiment on Gender Bias for Academic Scientists:
Results
• Both men and women
faculty were more likely
to hire the male
applicant, “John”
• Both men and women
faculty offered “John” a
higher starting salary
Salary Offers to Mythical Applicant
$32,000
$30,000
$28,000
$26,000
$24,000
$22,000
$20,000
Women Faculty
Applicant “Jennifer”
Men Faculty
Applicant “John”
Experiment on Gender, Hiring and Tenure in Academic
Psychology: Details of Study
•
Subjects:
–
–
•
238 academic psychologists (half female/half male)
Gender and quality of academic institution were known to
researchers
Each subject received one of 4 possible packets
–
Early packet (CV, teaching statement, bibliography)
•
–
Mature packet (CV, teaching record, more mature
bibliography)
•
•
Identical except for name Karen Miller or Brian Miller
Identical except for name Karen Miller or Brian Miller
Tasks for Subjects:
– To make a hiring decision recommendation
– To make a tenure recommendation
“The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and
Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study”, Rhea E. Steinpreis, Katie A. Anders,
and Dawn Ritzke, Sex Roles 41, 509 (1999).
Experiment on Gender, Hiring and Tenure in Academic
Psychology: Results for Entry Level Hire
Early cv
Mature cv
Early stage female cvs resulted in more negative hiring recommendations.
Experiment on Gender, Hiring and Tenure in Academic
Psychology
Does Gender of Reviewer Matter?
Gender of reviewer did not matter. Women and men discriminated equally
in regards to gender of candidate.
Experiment on Race and Hiring in Marketplace:
Details of Study
• 1300 help wanted ads in Boston and Chicago
newspapers.
• Four fictitious resumes sent to each ad
– Two high quality resumes/Two lower quality resumes
– Each resume tagged with either a traditionally AfricanAmerican name or a traditionally white name
• Return calls requesting interviews were logged for
each of the four classifications.
“Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field
Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination”, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil
Mullainathan, American Economic Review, 94 991 (2004).
Experiment on Race and Hiring in Marketplace: Results
Sample
Percent
Response
for White
Resumes
Percent
Response for
AfricanAmerican
Resumes
Ratio
All resumes
9.65
6.45
1.5
Chicago
8.06
5.40
1.49
Boston
11.63
7.76
1.5
Resumes with white names received callbacks 50% more often
than those with African-American names.
Implicit Bias Summary
• It is quite possible for well-meaning, egalitarian minded individuals
(both men and women) to discriminate both on gender and race.
• While the act is subtle (implicit bias) the net result is not.
Are there intervention strategies?
Fortunately, some implicit bias can be negated by
reminding subjects to be cognizant of impartiality and
bias at the onset of the review process, Devine, Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (2002).
Better Search Committee Practices
Before you interview
Committee Construction
Establishing criteria
Reaching the Pool
Documentation
Campus Interview Concerns
Construction of search committee
•
Include individuals with different perspectives and
expertise and with demonstrated commitment to
diversity.
Make sure the committee reflects as well as possible the
diversity within the unit.
•
Include a graduate student if possible.
•
All departments should include an outside member on
the committee.
If there is no woman or minority within the department,
consider including one from outside.
Guiding the Process
•
Hold mtg before the application deadline to develop and
implement a recruiting plan.
– Discuss and establish ground rules on meeting schedules, and
confidentiality issues.
– Discuss the roles and expectations.
– Discuss the decision making process
– Discuss implicit bias
•
Reach a common understanding of the selection criteria and
procedures for screening candidates, before materials from
applicants begin to arrive.
– Potential vs. demonstrated accomplishments
– What constitutes a strong publication record?
– Is “fit” important? What does “fit” mean?
– Relative weight of necessary qualifications
– Be able to defend decisions
– Is mentoring of students important?
– Approximate length of long list
– Approximate length of short list
•
Keep minutes to minimize misunderstandings
Reaching the pool
o
May consider using proactive language. Ex. from MIT:
–
o
“MIT is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally
diverse and pluralistic faculty committed to teaching
and working in a multicultural environment and strongly
encourages applications from minorities and women.”
Make personal contact with underrepresented groups
(minorities or women in some departments) at
professional conferences and invite them to apply.
OEO requires that you list the advertisement sources and
the outreach efforts for minorities and women.
Campus Interview Concerns
Provide packets to on campus candidates
Leave policies
Childcare resources
Community literature
Real estate contacts
Do not ask questions about:
Religion
Ethnic Origin
Marital Status
Sexual Orientation
Employment Status of Spouse
Parenthood
Future Parenthood
Disability
Insure that graduate students/faculty spouses etc. are also informed about
what to ask/what not to ask
Protect candidates from renegade faculty
Tips
• Prioritize selection criteria
• Do not let personal or narrow perspectives of
individual committee members dominate
the process
• Make committee members defend their
decisions to reject or retain an applicant
• Be sure standards are being applied
consistently