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Gender Gap in Teaching Evaluations and its Effect on Course Enrollments

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  • Saygin, Perihan O.
  • Zhang, Xi

Abstract

The disparity in teaching evaluations between male and female instructors is well documented. This paper demonstrates that, even when controlling for specific components of the same evaluation surveys, students tend to give lower overall ratings to female instructors compared to their male counterparts. Importantly, on popular rating platforms used by students, the average overall ratings are more prominently displayed than the detailed components of these evaluations. To explore the potential implications of this, we analyze data from two widely used teaching evaluation tools at a U.S. public research university: the online platform RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) and official university-conducted evaluations. By merging RMP ratings, official evaluations, and course enrollment data, we find that RMP’s overall quality ratings have a greater influence on course enrollment than official evaluations, particularly affecting the enrollment decisions of female students. Additionally, our analysis reveals that conditional on all of these evaluations, male students have lower enrollment rates in the sections of the same courses offered by female instructors even when accounting for the average grades in these courses from previous semesters.

Suggested Citation

  • Saygin, Perihan O. & Zhang, Xi, 2025. "Gender Gap in Teaching Evaluations and its Effect on Course Enrollments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:104:y:2025:i:c:s0272775724001110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2024.102617
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas S. Dee, 2007. "Teachers and the Gender Gaps in Student Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(3).
    2. Friederike Mengel & Jan Sauermann & Ulf Zölitz, 2019. "Gender Bias in Teaching Evaluations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 535-566.
    3. Thomas S. Dee, 2004. "Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 195-210, February.
    4. Dakota Murray & Clara Boothby & Huimeng Zhao & Vanessa Minik & Nicolas Bérubé & Vincent Larivière & Cassidy R Sugimoto, 2020. "Exploring the personal and professional factors associated with student evaluations of tenure-track faculty," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Arceo-Gomez, Eva O. & Campos-Vazquez, Raymundo M., 2019. "Gender stereotypes: The case of MisProfesores.com in Mexico," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 55-65.
    6. Boring, Anne, 2017. "Gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 27-41.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General

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