Journal of Educational Psychology 1987, Vol 79, No. 3, 308-314 Copyright 1987 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0022-066 3/87/$OO. 75 Student Evaluations of College Professors: Are Female and Male Professors Rated Differently? Susan A. Basow and Nancy T. Silberg Lafayette College Over 1,000 male and female college students of 16 male and female professors (matched for course division, years of teaching, and tenure status) evaluated their instructors in terms of teaching effectiveness and sex-typed characteristics. Male students gave female professors signif- icantly poorer ratings than they gave male professors on the six teaching evaluation measures; their ratings of female professors were poorer than those of female students on four of the six measures. Female students also evaluated female professors less favorably than male professors on three measures. Student perceptions of a professor's instrumental/active and expressive/ nurturant traits, which were positively related to student ratings of teaching, accounted for only a few of these gender-related effects. Student major and student class standing also played a role in the evaluation of professors. The importance of gender variables in teacher evaluation studies is discussed, and implications for future research are noted. Research since the 1960s has documented prejudice against women, particularly if women violate gender stereotypes, for example, by having gender-atypical characteristics or by par- ticipating in gender-atypical professions (Etaugh & Riley, 1983; Paludi & Bauer, 1983). Because college teaching is considered a high-status male occupation (Touhey, 1974) and because evaluations made by others influence advancement in such a career, it is important to determine if any biases exist in the evaluation of college professors. Most investigations of bias in the evaluation of professors have produced conflicting results. However, two variables that appear to be important are professor sex and professor sex typing. Although some studies have found relatively few or no differences in the evaluations of male and female professors on the basis of sex alone (Basow & Distenfeld, 1985; Bennett, 1982; Elmore & LaPointe, 1974, 1975), others have found a sex bias (Kaschak, 1978; Lombardo & Tocci, 1979). However, the nature of this bias seems to depend on student sex, the type of questions asked, and specific teacher qualities. For example, Kaschak (1978) examined student evaluations of professors' teaching methods as a function of teacher sex, student sex, and academic field (masculine, fem- inine, or neutral). She found that female students rated female and male professors as equally effective, concerned, likable, and excellent. In contrast, male students showed a consistent bias in favor of male professors. Both sexes, however, were more willing to take a course with the same-sex instructor. Lombardo and Tocci also found that male instructors were perceived as more competent than female instructors by male Portions of this research were presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, March 1985. We would like to express our gratitude to the participants in this study as well as to the anonymous reviewers of this article for their helpful com- ments. Nancy T. Silberg is now at the University of Vermont. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susan A. Basow, Psychology Department, Lafayette College, Eas- ton, Pennsylvania 18042. students, whereas female students showed no sex bias. In a second study, Kaschak (1981) found that most of the sex bias disappeared when the professors were described as award winning. However, male professors were still described as more powerful and effective than female professors, and female professors in "feminine" fields were rated as more concerned and likable than male professors in those fields. These results suggest that gender-stereotypic qualities play a role in the evaluation of college teachers. In an effort to understand better the influence of gender- stereotypic qualities on teacher evaluations, researchers have explored the effect of professor sex typing on student ratings of teachers. The findings, however, are unclear because in some cases professor sex typing interacts with student sex or professor sex. Furthermore, studies have varied considerably in methodology, with some using written descriptions and some using videotaped or real-life classroom instructors. In a study using written profiles of male and female teachers that included adjectives described as stereotypical ly masculine or feminine, Harris (1975) found that both male and female students rated teachers with "masculine" teaching styles more positively than those with "feminine" teaching styles on all measures except warmth. In a second study using a similar design, Harris (1976) reported that masculine-stereotyped teachers were evaluated more favorably at all grade levels (nursery school through college) on all measures except warmth and superiority. For warmth and superiority, profes- sor sex typing interacted with student sex. Students of each sex preferred the teacher who possessed the traits stereotyped as appropriate for their own sex. Expressiveness is another sex-typed trait that affects evalu- ations of teachers, although research on teacher expressiveness has sometimes tapped the "masculine" aspect related to dy- namism and sometimes the "feminine" aspect related to warmth. In general, the expressive teacher is rated more positively than the nonexpressive teacher (Abrami, Leventhal, & Perry, 1982; Basow & Distenfeld, 1985; Elmore & LaPointe, 1975; Marsh & Ware, 1982; Ware & Williams, 1975). How- ever, a number of methodological issues arise from this line 308