Adam vs. Eve-aluations: Gender bias in student assessments

At the end of every semester, students are given the opportunity to evaluate their courses and professors. Numerous studies have shown that student responses to evaluations often reflect gender bias against women.

A study published March 6 in PS: Political Science & Politics by Kristina Mitchell, director of undergraduate studies for the department of political science at Texas Tech University, concluded that women professors receive different comments than male professors and that when all other factors remain constant, men receive higher evaluations than females.

Mitchell’s study states students respond in this way due to a subconscious bias in which students view male professors to be more competent to teach at the university level.

Timothy Michael, associate professor of finance at UHCL, admits to noticing a difference in the way students address male and female professors ever since he can remember.

“It is pretty consistent that students will refer to female profs as ‘Ms. Smith’ versus calling their male profs ‘Dr. Smith’ even when both have PhDs,” Michael said.

One comment frequently applied to female professors students like to use is “sweet.”

“I’ve received the comment ‘sweet’ on numerous student evaluations,” said Amy Lucas, assistant professor of sociology and women studies at UHCL.

“I do have experience being called ‘super sweet’ in recent evaluations,” said Christal Seahorn, assistant professor of writing and digital rhetoric.

“My evaluations tend to include comments about how sweet I am or the fact I ‘really know’ the subject I am teaching,” reported Christine Walther, assistant professor of psychology. “Male colleagues are surprised when I mention receiving comments like this, as their comments usually focus more on the course structure or materials,” Walther continued.  Walther also reported that in the past she has had comments about her appearance.

Although comments concerning physical appearance and/or temperament are more likely to be directed toward female professors; they are sometimes directed at male professors as well.

“He could benchpress a Volkswagon and leap on top of tall buildings,” Magdy Akladios, professor of industrial hygiene and safety and department chair in the College of Science and Engineering, reports as one of his most memorable evaluations.

Some professors are taking steps to try and reduce gender bias in end-of-semester evaluations by informing students about the bias in advance of handing out the papers. Lucas addresses the potential for gender bias by incorporating a discussion on the gendered nature of course evaluations.

“As a class, we reflect upon why I may be called sweet, but male professors rarely, if ever, receive that type of comment,” Lucas said. “Course evaluations are a great way to demonstrate how gender structures and organizes our social interactions, many times without our consciously realizing that gender is playing such a vital role.”

Course evaluations are often used in tenure and promotional decisions for professors. Walther has put a stop to biased comments on evaluations by explaining to the class the purpose of the evaluations.

“I stopped receiving comments about appearance when I began explaining who sees the evaluations and the purpose they serve before my students completed evaluations, ” Walther explained.

Academia has long questioned whether students’ perceptions are inherently biased against female professors. Many studies support the idea that the bias is subconscious.

North Carolina researcher Lillian MacNell, along with co-authors Adam Driscoll and Andrea Hunt had a paper published in Innovative Higher Education, Aug. 2015, titled “What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching,” that also examined the idea of subconscious gender bias.

In MacNell’s study, two online course instructors, one male and one female, were given two online courses each. Each instructor told one of their classes they were male and one of the classes they were female. For both instructors, students gave professors they thought were male higher evaluations than the professors they thought were female.

“There should not be any difference in evaluating the professors based on the gender,” said Leo Chan, associate professor in communication and digital media studies. “The evaluations should focus on the quality of the class and capability of the professors’ teaching.”

At UHCL the process for evaluations typically include the professor handing out two forms for the students, one that is a scantron asking for reactions to specific questions on a scale of 1-5 with 1 as the lowest ranking. The scantron asks students to evaluate such qualities as the professors overall teaching ability, presentation of material and quality of course. The other form has three open-ended questions to gauge students’ satisfaction with the course.

Gender bias is not the only issue professors’ face in their evaluations. Some of the other biases include race, student interest in taking the course, the difficulty of the course and expected grade outcome.