A new study shows that female employers may prefer to hire gay and lesbian job applicants, while male employers prefer straight job applicants.

The study from the University of Sussex’s School of Business, Management and Economics asked 400 employers to review a randomly chosen resume. There were four fictional resumes from a gay man, a lesbian, a straight man, and a straight woman. The resumes were exactly the same other than the name and listed membership in a gay professional association.

Recruiters were asked to rate the resume on a scale from 1 to 7. Female recruiters gave the gay and lesbian candidates an average of 5.21 and straight candidates 4.8, and male recruiters scored gay and lesbian candidates 4.6 and straight candidates 4.93. The bias was even stronger among recruiters with more experience.

The study’s lead author Ben Everly wrote, “Because women experience discrimination and the glass ceiling in organisations, women may believe that gay and lesbian applicants must be more competent than equally qualified heterosexual applicants, in order to advance their careers.”

The authors recommend gender balanced hiring panels to eliminate bias in recruitment.