Gender bias also weighs on university professors

Gender bias also affects university professors : it profoundly influences the evaluations students give them, with male professors receiving much more positive ratings than their female colleagues . This is demonstrated by the results of two experiments conducted in Italy among philosophy students, published in a study in the journal Philosophical Psychology. The research, led by the University of Bologna with the participation of Roma Tre University and the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council in Rome, highlights that, given the same content, male professors are perceived as clearer, more competent , and more authoritative .

Researchers led by Pia Campeggiani of the University of Bologna conducted an initial experiment by asking students to read and evaluate lecture excerpts. The texts were identical, but some were attributed to male and some to female professors.

Male participants gave higher ratings of male instructors' lessons in terms of clarity, competence, and learning benefit, while female instructors scored higher only on stereotypically feminine dimensions, such as those associated with caring .

Female students , on the other hand, evaluated the texts in the same way but, when asked whether, in light of the text they had read, they would have followed an entire university course , they showed a strong preference for male teachers .

The second experiment produced even more striking results. Listening to audio versions of texts read by female or male voices led both male and female students to rate male professors more favorably . "Our study shows that gender biases are so ingrained ," says Campeggiani, "that they influence ratings even when reading or listening to the exact same text ."