Why less praise for women?

An analysis of 1,224 recommendation letters for postdoctoral fellowships in geosciences revealed that female applicants are only half as likely to receive ‘excellent’ letters versus ‘good’ letters compared to male applicants. However, there was no evidence that male and female recommenders differ in their likelihood to write stronger letters for male applicants over female applicants. The full paper is published in Nature Geoscience and can be accessed via this physicsworld link.