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On shaky ground
The importance of tenure and gender fairness for female academics : new study
By Wade Zaglas
Two US economics researchers have found that female academics on short-term contracts are more likely to grade their students ’ assignments harshly compared with their male counterparts in the same career situation , which can lead to several negative consequences .
Also , students are more likely to give female instructors or tutors less favourable teaching evaluations .
These significant findings were gleaned from a decade of data made available by a major US university . The researchers , who published their study in Economics of Education Review , said the practice “ reflects the combination of gender-related and financial vulnerabilities facing such teachers when they award grades ”.
“ All lecture faculty are going to be very sensitive to their teaching evaluation ,” said one co-author , Veronica Sovero , an assistant professor of economics at San Francisco State University .
“ But it ’ s going to be even stronger for these female faculty who are on uncertain contracts .”
Sovero and Amanda Griffith , an associate professor of economics at Wake Forest University , commenced their study by aiming to prove two well-known phenomena in universities : short-term teaching staff have a proclivity to mark more leniently , and students tend to give female tutors or instructors worse ratings than men .
For their investigation , titled Under pressure : How faculty gender and contract uncertainty impact students ’ grades , both researchers were given permission to access de-identified information from the US university , resulting in records from more than 170,000 course enrolments between 1994 and 1995 .
THE ANALYSIS The study ’ s abstract makes clear why such a study is necessary and also points to why more work is needed to understand this incongruence between male and female instructors ’ marking and student evaluations of each sex ’ s teaching performance .
“ Although rising average grades appear to be common at post-secondary institutions in the U . S . there is still little work examining mechanisms driving this increase in grades . This paper uses data from a public research university to examine one mechanism in particular : instructor level incentives that are linked to gender and contract status ,” the abstract states .
“ We hypothesize that instructors with more job uncertainty due to their rank will be most incentivised to award higher grades , as this may lead to better evaluations of teaching and an increase in retention probability .
“ Our results indicate that students receive higher grades when their class is taught by a female instructor with more job uncertainty than if the class were taught by a tenured female faculty member . These higher grades appear to reflect more lenient grading rather than better preparation for follow-on courses .
“ However , for students taking classes with male instructors , there is no significant difference across instructor rank in grades received . Our results have important implications for thinking about the role faculty contracts may play in affecting grading distributions .”
After analysing the data , the researchers found “ the proportion of A grades increased slightly among male instructors as their contract status moved from uncertainty toward tenured positions ”. What was noteworthy , however , was that the female members of staff tended to grade more harshly as they moved towards tenured status , with the proportion of higher grades decreasing and lower grades such as Cs increasing .
Just why this is the case is perplexing and worthy of further investigation .
The authors concede that the study contains some limiting factors , such as the use of a single university . However , at the same time , Sovero said the university in question “ appears representative of many research-intensive universities , including its general prioritisation of research over teaching ”.
While more research is needed on why male and female instructors mark in different ways when enjoying similar employment status , the research still makes a worthy contribution in exploring how universities must “ take steps that may have been pointed out to them in the past ,” Sovero said , “ including giving their instructors longer-term contracts and trying to reduce bias in student evaluations of teachers ”.
For instance , on the topic of reducing gender-based bias in teacher evaluations , Savero recommended something as simple as making students aware of concepts such as unconscious bias and reflecting on their decision-making .
In a world that is becoming far more conscious of gender bias , the researchers noted that such studies are in universities ’ best interests .
“ The study ... reflects a growing willingness among universities to participate in such research − often on the condition of anonymity − to help improve their operations ,” Sovero added . ■
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