Teachers' Implicit Gender Bias and the Moderating Effects of Modern Sexism and Anxiety

• In Event: Gender in the Lives of Teachers, Pupils, and Youth

Abstract

We explored teachers’ implicit biases and factors moderating their biases in two experimental studies. First, teachers estimated students’ mathematical abilities based on solutions to which race and gender-specific names were randomly assigned. Then teachers were randomly assigned to student performance conditions that differed by gender and asked to evaluate potential reasons for the difference. We found that White female teachers gave higher ability ratings when male student names appeared on the work. These implicit biases were moderated by teachers’ beliefs that gender disparities did not exist society. Teachers also attributed gender disparities to differences in effort and opportunity gaps when they were told that girls outperformed boys compared with when boys outperformed girls.

Authors

• Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, University of Southern California

• Ian Thacker, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Joseph R. Cimpian, New York University