Gender Bias in the Classroom

As more and more women enter the science field there is still a stereotype against women in the field. The vast majority of science teachers in American high schools are men and the few women that have dedicated their lives to teaching the sciences are being underrated by their students based on their sex and not their teaching ability. This is discussed in Susan Polowczuk's "Gender bias found in student ratings of high school teachers" article concluding on a Clemsen University research project. The believe that, "students have developed a specific sense of gender-appropriate roles in the sciences by the end of high school" (Polowczuk 4) and through their study have proven their claim with many statistics. With social equality improving everywhere throughout society why is there still a bias in the classroom? Male students underrated their female teachers in both chemistry and physics while female students underrated their female teachers in only physics. As far as society has come to balance the playing field, students have an inner bias which makes them believe male teachers are more fit to educate them on the sciences even though tests have shown that both male and female teachers have an equal effectiveness at preparing students for college (Polowczuk 11). Some say this is wrong and sexist but how can that be when the majority of female students underrate their own female teachers. I would have to agree with the researchers in that female science teachers are just as effective and yet many times underestimated and looked down upon compared to male teachers.

The sciences have always been more dominated by males and the stereotype is very much still prevalent. Even though the female equality movement has changed the lifestyle around us, there is still a border of, “what are and what are not appropriate roles for males and females in science” (Polowczuk6). There have been improvements but this is still evident in the number of female students and teachers in the field. Our entire physics department currently has one female teacher who has just started for the first time this year, before her there were only male teachers. Physics is definitely the most male dominated out of the three major high school sciences: biology, chemistry, and physics. Many believe that, “such a bias could negatively impact female students and contribute to the loss of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics" (Polowczuk 6) and I would have to agree. Although my school is a little different because both our valedictorian and salutatorian are females who excel in math and science, our entire AP physics class consists of only male students.
Throughout my high school life, all but one of my six science teachers have been male and the majority of the class was always males over females. When I heard we were getting a female teacher for AP physics I was shocked…but why should I be? Females can perform just as well as males in the physics field and their teaching capability does not change based on gender. Even the female students not in the class were curious to see what kind of teacher she would be. If we were told we would have a male teacher we wouldn’t have thought about it until the first day of school, but solely because of her gender we were curious and anxious to meet the teacher. What is it about students' mindsets that make us fix a position and subject to "fit" male and female teachers. Based on this study there is no set reason why this trend has happened but I believe it is simply a question of the chicken and the egg. There are currently few female science teachers and fewer females enjoying the sciences compared to men. As those few females go to college even fewer will turn out to be science teachers and the cycle will happen again where there will always be a domination of science teaching positions by male over female (Polowczuk 8). Because of this the female science teachers will continue to be looked as the underdog and be underestimated by the students who will subconsciously rate their male teachers higher based solely on their gut instead of the teacher's credentials or their teaching ability.
Will this stereotype ever be broken? Unless there is a huge surge of female students into the science teaching field, this trend will most likely continue. There is evidence that female teachers have been highly underrated by their students in this study and the results can be read in detail at an affiliated site. This trend has been seen not only in the high school level but also the ratio of female to male students who strive for a PhD along with becoming a college professor follows the same trend. There have been much research done on the lack of female interest in the sciences and there has been a slight increase in the women in the science fields. Eventually there is an unspoken goal to level out the playing field but there is no indication that the current status quo of female science teachers will change anytime in the near future. As to our nature of underrating teachers based on gender, it is programmed into student's brains for no apparent reason and yet it is undeniably there. There is a hard road ahead for female teachers with hardship but in the end if they have the drive to teach and educated young minds, one that is a road they must fight through.

Work Cited

Polowczuk, Susan. "Gender bias found in student ratings of high school science teachers." Newsroom. 2 Feb.
2009. Clemson University. 12 Feb. 2009. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02
/090202174953.htm].