My recent paper in Economic Journal: In the Econ job market men and women are recommended differently: letters for women stress hard work, those for men more likely highlight brilliance. This affects job placement. Link to Paper: t.co/HUieaMuERd With Giovanni Facchini and Markus Eberhardt

In what context do children show up so prominently in letters for female candidates?

Interesting findings! If I understand correctly, are all these letters from a single institution? Also, is the code for your methodology available somewhere?

I once sat on an economics job panel - this is scarily true ( and brilliance as ‘potential’ rather than evidenced by actual output). I think it is a bit less true in history but not absent.