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Gender, ethnicity and teaching evaluations: Evidence from mixed teaching teamsAuthor-Name: Wagner, Natascha

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  • Rieger, Matthias
  • Voorvelt, Katherine

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of teacher gender and ethnicity on student evaluations of teaching at university. We analyze a unique data-set featuring mixed teaching teams and a diverse, multicultural, multi-ethnic group of students and teachers. Blended co-teaching allows us to study the link between student evaluations of teaching and teacher gender as well as ethnicity exploiting within course variation in a panel data model with course-year fixed effects. We document a negative effect of being a female teacher on student evaluations of teaching, which amounts to roughly one fourth of the sample standard deviation of teaching scores. Overall women are 11 percentage points less likely to attain the teaching evaluation cut-off for promotion to associate professor compared to men. The effect is robust to a host of co-variates such as course leadership, teacher experience and research quality, as well as an alternative teacher fixed effect specification. There is no evidence of a corresponding ethnicity effect. Our results are suggestive of a gender bias against female teachers and indicate that the use of teaching evaluations in hiring and promotion decisions may put female lectures at a disadvantage.

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  • Rieger, Matthias & Voorvelt, Katherine, 2016. "Gender, ethnicity and teaching evaluations: Evidence from mixed teaching teamsAuthor-Name: Wagner, Natascha," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 79-94.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:79-94
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.06.004
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    Cited by:

    1. Chisadza, Carolyn & Nicholls, Nicky & Yitbarek, Eleni, 2019. "Race and gender biases in student evaluations of teachers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 66-71.
    2. Bertoni, Marco & Rettore, Enrico & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2024. "If (my) 6 was (your) 9. Reporting heterogeneity in student evaluations of teaching," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Boring, Anne, 2017. "Gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 27-41.
    4. Ayllón, Sara, 2022. "Online teaching and gender bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Ayllón, Sara & Zamora, Camila, 2025. "Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Do Debiasing Campaigns Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 17632, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Angelo Antoci & Irene Brunetti & Pierluigi Sacco & Mauro Sodini, 2021. "Student evaluation of teaching, social influence dynamics, and teachers’ choices: An evolutionary model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 325-348, January.
    7. Robert L. Moore & Hanna Song & James D. Whitney, 2021. "Do Students Discriminate? Exploring Differentials by Race and Sex in Class Enrollments and Student Ratings of Instructors," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 135-162, January.
    8. Boring, Anne & Philippe, Arnaud, 2021. "Reducing discrimination in the field: Evidence from an awareness raising intervention targeting gender biases in student evaluations of teaching," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Martin Flegl & Robert Hlavatý, 2022. "Understanding transitions in professors’ evaluation: the application of Markov chain," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 59(1), pages 304-323, March.
    10. Cannon, Edmund & Cipriani, Giam Pietro, 2021. "Gender Differences in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Identification and Consequences," IZA Discussion Papers 14387, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Student evaluations of teaching; Gender; Ethnicity; Bias; Course-year fixed effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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