Susan A. Basow

Student evaluations of college professors : when gender matters

Student evaluations completed over a 4-year period at a private liberal arts college were analyzed for the effets of teacher gender, student gender, and divisional affiliation. A significant multivariate intereaction between teacher gender and student gender was found for each of the 4 semesters examined. Overall, the ratings of male professors appeared to be unaffected by student gender. In contrast, female professors tended to receive their highest ratings form female students and their lowest ratings form male students. This interaction generally remained when possible confounding factors (such as teacher rank) were partialed out. The mean ratings received by female and male professors also varied as a function of the divisional affiliation of the course. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Role-Model Influence: Effects of Sex and Sex-Role Attitude in College Students.

College students, evenly divided by sex, rated the degree of influence of six or eight people on choice of a college and a career. Sex-role attitude was also assessed. In the first of two experiments, the sexes showed different patterns of influence as did the sex-role attitude groupings. Experiment 2, using only college seniors and matching the sexes on the attitude scale, again found that females were more influenced by female models in their choice of career than were males. However, no effect of sex-role attitude appeared. In neither experiment was there a main effect of sex on the choices. Results were discussed in terms of the particular importance of female models for female students.

Best and Worst Professors: Gender Patterns in Students' Choices

Over 100 primarily White students described their best and worst professor. For “best,” female professors were chosen more by their female students and less by their male students than expected. There were no gender differences in choice of “worst” professors. The qualities that students criticize are similar for their male and female professors, mainly a lack of organization and clarity. “Best” professors most often are described as caring and knowledgeable, but other qualities vary as a function of professor or student gender. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to gender dynamics in classroom teaching and in student evaluations.

Heterosexual Masculinity and Homophobia: A Reaction to the Self?

Abstract Heterosexual masculinity is the cultural pressure exerted on males to be masculine in traits and heterosexual in orientation or else be viewed as feminine and socially unacceptable. The current study investigated the link between heterosexual masculinity and homophobia in 74 college males. Specifically, gender self-discrepancy (how well males think they fit cultural expectations of how they should act as a man), attribute importance (perceived importance of possessing masculine attributes), and self-esteem were examined as predictors of homophobia. Attribute importance, self-discrepancy along masculine traits, and their interaction significantly predicted degree of homophobia in this sample.

Perceptions of Relational and Physical Aggression among College Students: Effects of Gender of Perpetrator, Target, and Perceiver

This study examined gendered perceptions of relational and physical aggressive behaviors and personal experiences with both types of aggression. Prior research suggested that physical aggression by males and relational aggression by females would be perceived most negatively. College students (186 female, 128 male) rated the acceptability and harmfulness of aggression in scenarios in which type of aggression and perpetrator and target gender were varied. As predicted, relational aggression by female characters and physical aggression by male characters were rated as less acceptable and more aggressive/harmful than the same behavior by the other gender. Thus, expectations regarding the gender-appropriateness of aggression appear to affect perceptions of such acts. Despite popular conceptions that females use and are harmed by relational aggression more than males, there was no gender difference in experience with relational aggression, nor were female targets viewed as more harmed by such aggression than their male counterparts.

Body Objectification, Social Pressure, and Disordered Eating Behavior in College Women: The Role of Sorority Membership

Social pressure to conform to the thin ideal is believed to play a decisive role in the development of eating disorders. In this field study at a college with only sophomore rush, 99 sorority women, 80 nonsorority women past their first year, and 86 first-year women completed three subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (Garner, 1991), the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (McKinley & Hyde, 1996), and a measure of peer social pressure. It was hypothesized that women belonging to sororities as well as those who intended to join would score higher than nonsorority and first-year women with no intention to join on these measures of disordered eating, body objectification, and social pressure. It also was predicted that the amount of time spent living in a sorority house as well as degree of social pressure would correlate positively with higher scores on body objectification and disordered eating. Results supported nearly all hypotheses, suggesting both that sororities attract at-risk women and that living in a sorority house is associated with increased likelihood of disordered eating.

You Owe Me: Effects of Date Cost, Who Pays, Participant Gender, and Rape Myth Beliefs on Perceptions of Rape

Sexual social exchange theory was applied to perceptions of a date rape by manipulating the cost of the date and who paid in vignettes presented to 188 U.S. college students, who then rated the characters’ sexual expectations, blame, responsibility, and rape justifiability. Findings from this between-participant design partially supported predictions: When the man paid for an expensive date, men agreed more than did women that both characters should have expected sexual intercourse. Conversely, when the costs of an inexpensive date were split, the perpetrator was assigned the most blame, and women agreed more than men that no sexual expectations were warranted. Participant gender affected some responses, although level of rape myth acceptance was the main predictor of rape perceptions.

The Hairless Ideal: Women and Their Body Hair

A major component of “femininity” in the United States today is a hairless body, a norm that developed in the United States between 1915–1945. Little has been written regarding the development of this norm, and virtually no empirical research has been done to assess how universally ascribed to is this standard or why women actually remove their leg and underarm hair. More than 200 women from two national professional organizations responded to a mailed questionnaire (response rate 56%). The majority (around 80%) remove their leg and/or underarm hair at least occasionally. Two types of reasons for shaving emerged: feminine/attractiveness reasons and social/normative reasons. Most women start shaving for the latter reasons but continue to shave for the former reasons. Certain groups, however, were least likely to remove leg and/or underarm hair: strongly feminist women and self-identified lesbians. The results of the study are discussed in terms of the function the hairlessness norm may serve in our culture.

Identity development and psychological well-being in Korean-born adoptees in the U.S.

Because adult Korean-born adoptees have unique experiences, the factors that contribute to their psychological well-being need to be studied separately from both Caucasian and Korean Americans. In this Internet-based study with 83 adult Korean-born adoptees in the United States, both ethnic identity and adjustment to adoption (considered a component of adoptive identity) were expected to predict psychological well-being. Results supported predictions: Each measure of psychological well-being (personal growth, self-acceptance, and positive relationships with others) was affected by the predictive variables in unique ways. Cultural socialization experiences also were related to personal growth, but this association was fully mediated by strength of ethnic identity. Implications for adoptive parents and counselors are discussed.

Attitudes Toward Prostitution as a Function of Attitudes Toward Feminism in College Students: An Exploratory Study

Eighty-nine male and female undergraduates completed the Attitudes toward Feminism Scale and the author-devised Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale, which contained five factors. Profeminist attitudes were related to three out of five factors. Respondents scoring in a profeminist direction were more likely to view prostitution as reflecting exploitation and subordination of women, less likely to believe women become prostitutes out of economic necessity, and less likely to approve of decriminalization and legalization of prostitution. Gender differences also appeared that were not explained by differences in profeminist attitudes: women were more likely than men to disagree with decriminalization and legalization efforts and were more likely to view prostitution as reflecting exploitation and subordination.