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Gender Bias in Teaching Evaluations

Author

Listed:
  • Mengel, Friederike

    (University of Essex)

  • Sauermann, Jan

    (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University)

  • Zölitz, Ulf

    (Briq institute, Bonn)

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on gender bias in teaching evaluations. We ex-ploit a quasi-experimental dataset of 19,952 student evaluations of university faculty in a context where students are randomly allocated to female or male instructors. Despite the fact that neither students’ grades nor self-study hours are affected by the instructor’s gender, we find that women receive systematically lower teaching evaluations than their male colleagues. This bias is driven by male students’ evaluations, is larger for mathematical courses and particularly pronounced for junior women. The gender bias in teaching evaluations we document may have direct as well as indirect effects on the career progression of women by affecting junior women’s confidence and through the reallocation of instructor resources away from research and towards teaching.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengel, Friederike & Sauermann, Jan & Zölitz, Ulf, 2017. "Gender Bias in Teaching Evaluations," Working Paper Series 6/2017, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2017_006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender bias; teaching evaluations; female faculty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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