Dive Brief

• When gender references are removed from scientific research applications, female principal investigators were selected at a higher rate than their male counterparts, a study published last month revealed.
• The study authors examined the application review process used by the Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee. Initially, female applicants were selected for research time about 19% of the time, even though they represented nearly 23% of the applications. In 2018, all personally identifying information was removed from the applications. Prior to that, male applicants outperformed women by about 5%. After the switch, however, women outperformed men by 1%.
• Organizations should anonymize their recruiting procedures when possible, the authors wrote in a Harvard Business Review article about their research. "When you have evidence that gender, race, age, or other differences are affecting your selection process, despite their not being relevant selection criteria, you have error in your process," they said.

For more, visit HRDive for the full article.

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