A study conducted in four Weber State University psychology classes found that students consider female professors less competent, wise and knowledgeable than their male counterparts.
Psychology department chairman Benne Williams last year linked up with psychology professor Julianne Arbuckle to determine whether gender stereotypes influence student evaluations.Williams had suspected that subconscious biases existed for some time. And last year, he sat in on classes taught by new faculty - three women and a man. He found them equally competent. But when student evaluations came back, the women were rated lower and received more negative comments.
"She doesn't have a grasp of the material. She is not mature enough to make valid comments. She was unprepared," Williams said, recalling some of the students' opinions. "The females were accused of having a feminist viewpoint, while the male was not accused of having a male viewpoint."
For the study, Williams and Arbuckle randomly selected four introductory psychology classes.
They hired professional readers, a man and a woman, to record identical lectures. Two classes heard the woman's lecture, the other two, the man's. But each class saw a different photo of the "visiting professor." One set of photos showed a man or woman in their 30s. The other set showed a man or woman in their 50s. Students were not told the objective.
Students were asked to rate the "professor" on competency and personality traits such as power, wisdom, stability, emotion and humor.
On a scale of 1-5 for competency, the younger male professor was rated the highest with a 4.14 average, followed by the older male. The older woman came next, followed by the younger woman. In terms of personality traits, on a scale of 1-7, the older man ranked first with a 4.97 average followed by the younger male, younger female and older female.
"The younger woman, in terms of being competent, was judged so far below the young male professor, there is only a five out of 1,000 chance we are wrong," Arbuckle said.
"I am very concerned that the older woman was judged to be more unhappy, irritable, unstable - all of the negatives - and the older man with the highest marks, more generous, wise, social and powerful."
Arbuckle cautioned that the study is strictly a generalization. She and Williams presented a paper on it at a psychology conference in Colorado last month.
But both hope it may change the way evaluations are done. "We are not saying they are faulty," Williams said.
"But this has demonstrated that biases exist, especially against young females and possibly older females, and those facts should be considered more consciously."