Women in authoritah
by digby
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| This is what my google image search for college professor returned |
I hate to say it but my experience in politics in recent years has made this data very unsurprising to me:
Students tend to think their male professors are “geniuses,” while their female professors are “bossy,” a new interactive chart reveals. Using data from RateMyProfessors.com, a popular forum for griping or raving about classes, Benjamin Schmidt, a Northeastern University professor, was able to clearly map out students’ biases.
The chart breaks down reviews to sort which words are affiliated with each gender and discipline. According to The Upshot, “Men are more likely to be described as a star, knowledgeable, awesome or the best professor. Women are more likely to be described as bossy, disorganized, helpful, annoying or as playing favorites. Nice or rude are also more often used to describe women than men.”
Students are much more likely to call their male professors “geniuses.” Female professors, meanwhile, are far more likely to be called “feisty,” especially if they teach humanities classes.
The tool helps illustrate student biases that are only beginning to come to light. A December 2014 study found that students consistently rated teachers higher if they thought they were male.
Gendered language is one way those biases manifest themselves, and can do significant damage to women’s professional and personal lives. A recent analysis of performance reviews in the tech industry found that women were far more likely to receive criticism from their supervisors. The word “abrasive” was used many times to describe female employees, but never appeared in a review for any of the men.
“Abrasive” is also more likely to be used to describe a female professor on RateMyProfessor.
It goes on in that vein. I know people want to think this isn’t true but it is. And it permeates our society and has permeated this election in ways that are just plain depressing since it also exists among people of good faith.
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