Assessing the role of gender in college students’ evaluations of faculty

This study investigates whether students’ assessments of male and female professors are influenced by traditional gender schema. Nearly 500 university students were surveyed about their perceptions of male and female faculty. Analysis of five factors reflecting teaching characteristics consistent with both stereotypically masculine and feminine traits revealed a significant interaction between student gender and professor gender. Female students rated female faculty especially high across five teaching dimensions and male faculty comparatively lower, while male students did not evaluate male and female professors as significantly different. Qualitative analysis reveals, however, that assessments of faculty were further influenced by the strength of students’ gender schema, and that gender schema may also lead to differential preference for particular teaching styles.