Driscoll, Adam

Hunt, Andrea N.

MacNell, Lillian

English

The Keep

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
Volume 0 National Center Proceedings 2015 Article 53
April 2015
What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in
Student Ratings of Teaching
Lillian MacNell
North Carolina State University
Adam Driscoll
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
Andrea N. Hunt
University of North Alabama
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Recommended Citation
MacNell, Lillian; Driscoll, Adam; and Hunt, Andrea N. (2015) "What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of
Teaching," Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 0 , Article 53.
Available at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol0/iss10/53
What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching 
Lillian MacNell – North Carolina State University 
Adam Driscoll – University of Wisconsin–La Crosse 
Andrea N. Hunt – University of North Alabama 
 
Study Design  
 
• Students were randomly assigned to one of four work groups, which were divided between 
two instructors, one male and one female. 
o Unbeknownst to the students, each instructor interacted with one group under their 
own identity and a second under their fellow instructor’s identity (see table below). 
• We created a survey asking students to rate their instructors on 12 measures. 
 
Discussion Group Instructor’s Perceived Gender Instructor’s Actual Gender 
Group A Female Female 
Group B Female Male 
Group C Male Female 
Group D Male Male 
 
 
Results 
 
Figure 1- Comparison of the aggregate index of student ratings across perceived instructor gender (left two 
columns) and actual instructor gender. The difference on the left is significant to the 0.1 level. 
 
 
 
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MacNell et al.: What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teac
Published by The Keep, 2015
Table 1- Comparison of means of student ratings of teaching across the actual gender of the assistant instructor 
and the perceived gender of the assistant instructor. 
Note: Each cell contains the mean student response for the question with the standard deviations in parentheses. 
The cells in the Difference columns contain the difference between the means with the r-squared in italics and 
parentheses. Welch’s t-tests were used to establish the significance of the observed differences. 
† p < = 0.10. * p < = 0.05. 
 
 
• There was no significant difference in the ratings of the actual male and actual female 
instructor. 
 
• There was, however, a statistically significant difference in the ratings of the perceived male 
and perceived female instructor, with the perceived male receiving an average of 3/4 of a 
point higher than the perceived female. 
o The perceived male received higher ratings on all 12 metrics, six of which were 
significant differences. 
o For example, the same turnaround time for grades was rated as a 4.35/5 for the 
perceived male instructor, and a 3.55/5 for the perceived female. 
 
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Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Vol. 0, Iss. 10 [2015], Art. 53
http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol0/iss10/53


What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching

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What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching

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