Successful Women Make the Best Advocates to Help Other Women Rise up in the Ranks

Job referrals can have different effects depending on the gender and level of experience of who provides them. New research utilizing data from U.S. Supreme Court law clerk hiring decisions finds that female job applicants with recommendations from other highly tenured women have the strongest chance of getting a job offer. The study from the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management examines the impact personal references have on hiring decisions because who you know is often just as or more important than what you know when it comes to getting hired. "Personal referrals and recommendations can act as a gatekeeping process in elite and lucrative occupational contexts," said Elizabeth L. Campbell, assistant professor of management at the Rady School and lead author of the study. "Having the right connections and a powerful informal advocate, also known as a sponsor, has a big impact on job candidates' success in the hiring process, above and beyond their qualifications alone." Referrals and recommendations have been shown to be helpful for women, particularly those in male-dominated professions, where women face even greater biases than the norm. However, Campbell's study, published in the journal Academy of Management Discoveries, shows that referrals can have different effects depending on who provides them. "We find that overall, candidates who are recommended by male sponsors are more likely to be hired than those recommended by female sponsors," Campbell said.