Gender, Teaching Evaluations, and Professional Success in Political Science

Abstract

Evaluations of teaching effectiveness rely heavily on student evaluations of teaching. However, an accumulating body of evidence shows that these evaluations are subject to gender bias. Theories of leadership and role incongruity suggest that this bias should be especially prominent in large courses. This article examines publicly available data from two large political science departments and fi nds that female instructors receive substantively and signifi cantly lower ratings than male instructors in large courses. The author discusses the implications of apparent gender bias in teaching evaluations for the professional success of female faculty. Findings of gender bias in evaluations in other fi elds also hold in political science and are particularly problematic in the evaluation of large courses.

Exploring Bias in Student Evaluations: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

“…This constitutes a "double-bind dilemma" in which gendered expectations conflict between femaleness and higher education (MacNell, Driscoll, and Hunt 2015). This is exacerbated in the context of leadership, which closely aligns with the role of an academic instructor (Johnson et al 2008;Martin 2016). Moreover, both direct and indirect bias are exacerbated in fields perceived to be masculine in nature or exhibiting steeper underrepresentation of women (Eagly and Karau 2002).…”

Gender bias in student evaluation of teaching among undergraduate business students

“…In small courses (10 students), Martin (2016) found insignificant difference in student evaluations between male and female instructors. For larger courses (100 students) a more sizeable difference emerged, with men scoring one-to two-tenths of a point higher on a Likert scale from 1 to 5.…”

“…Using Tobit analysis on the whole sample, Martin (2016) found a significant negative effect of class size on SET, while it was counteracted by a significant positive effect of the interaction term of class size and male instructor. In small courses (10 students), Martin (2016) found insignificant difference in student evaluations between male and female instructors.…”

“…Also included in the model was information on the course in question. The size of the class in terms of the number of enrolled students was included in line with the results from Martin (2016). The class size varied from 41 to 207, with a mean of 105 students.…”

“…Student evaluation of teaching can reflect something unrelated to teaching, such as various biases, including gender bias (Arbuckle & Williams, 2003;Stark & Freishtat, 2014;Weinberg, Fleisher & Hashimoto, 2007;Boring, 2015;Martin, 2016). Furthermore, the response rate is usually low.…”