I taught a large lecture course of 300 students last semester. Five graduate student teaching assistants (TA) ran the associated discussion sections. I just got their course evaluations. Here's the overview (overall score plus a typical written comment):
TA 1 overall score: 5.64/7.00
"Great presentation of subject matter, just a little too wordy sometimes."
TA 2 overall score: 5.91/7.00
"While I enjoyed the course, I found Y's teaching style to be somewhat dry."
TA 3 overall score: 5.96/7.00
"X is very patient and always tries to help us. Could adjust pace, slow down."
TA 4 overall score: 6.23/7.00
"The discussion did not add much to the class."
TA 5 overall score: 6.43/7.00
"Z is very friendly and answered questions to the best of their ability."
Two of my teaching assistants were men, three were women. Would you like to take a guess as to which is which?
Hint: It worked out exactly like you might fear if you feel like women in positions of authority are often judged much more harshly than are men.
(1, 2, and 3 are women, 4 and 5 are men)
These evaluations completely suspect, as my male teaching assistants always score higher than my female teaching assistants. That cannot possibly be the case year after year. There must have been at least one bad male teaching assistant in there and at least one good female teaching assistant, at least so that they didn't rank perfectly by sex all the time.
So, these evaluations are completely and utterly meaningless.
Except that they hurt. Time and time again. Women in academia are constantly told in these "little" ways that they aren't as good as the guys -- and what a ding to the confidence. And the guys? They are constantly being boosted up by these "little" things. Disadvantage to one, advantage to the other. To add to it, it is always the negative reviews that matter more -- the hurt is deeper than the gain from the positive reviews. So, up one step for the guys and back two steps for the women.
TA 1 overall score: 5.64/7.00
"Great presentation of subject matter, just a little too wordy sometimes."
TA 2 overall score: 5.91/7.00
"While I enjoyed the course, I found Y's teaching style to be somewhat dry."
TA 3 overall score: 5.96/7.00
"X is very patient and always tries to help us. Could adjust pace, slow down."
TA 4 overall score: 6.23/7.00
"The discussion did not add much to the class."
TA 5 overall score: 6.43/7.00
"Z is very friendly and answered questions to the best of their ability."
Two of my teaching assistants were men, three were women. Would you like to take a guess as to which is which?
Hint: It worked out exactly like you might fear if you feel like women in positions of authority are often judged much more harshly than are men.
(1, 2, and 3 are women, 4 and 5 are men)
These evaluations completely suspect, as my male teaching assistants always score higher than my female teaching assistants. That cannot possibly be the case year after year. There must have been at least one bad male teaching assistant in there and at least one good female teaching assistant, at least so that they didn't rank perfectly by sex all the time.
So, these evaluations are completely and utterly meaningless.
Except that they hurt. Time and time again. Women in academia are constantly told in these "little" ways that they aren't as good as the guys -- and what a ding to the confidence. And the guys? They are constantly being boosted up by these "little" things. Disadvantage to one, advantage to the other. To add to it, it is always the negative reviews that matter more -- the hurt is deeper than the gain from the positive reviews. So, up one step for the guys and back two steps for the women.
Yup. And how many men get comments about their clothing/hair style/etc? Oy.
ReplyDeleteWow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteA boy gets 6.23/7.00 for "The discussion did not add much to the class."
And girls get 5.64/7.00 for "Great presentation of subject matter, just a little too wordy sometimes" and 5.96/7.00 for "X is very patient and always tries to help us."
Why do we bother, again?
And then how many women redouble their teaching efforts in hopes of getting better reviews, thereby sinking more time into teaching, thereby leaving less time for research and other pursuits, thus falling even farther behind their male colleagues?
ReplyDelete