Student Evaluations and Gender

Still using student evaluations in hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions?

You might want to take a look at this new study, which adds to the evidence that student evaluations are biased in favour of men.

Students gave professors they thought were male much higher evaluations across the board than they did professors they thought were female, regardless of what gender the professors actually were. When they told students they were men, both the male and female professors got a bump in ratings. When they told the students they were women, they took a hit in ratings …

Classwork was graded and returned to students at the same time by both instructors. But the instructor students thought was male was given a 4.35 rating out of 5. The instructor students thought was female got a 3.55 rating.

“Women trapped in universities’ ivory basements”

Article from The Independent.

“Female academics are trapped in the “ivory basement” in universities across Britain, where sexual discrimination is rife, according to a new study. They’re being treated as sex objects, turned down for promotion, and penalised for having children, are examples of the “‘cultural sexism’ which characterises the working lives of many women in British academia”, says the paper, which will be published in the journal Gender and Education early next year.”

” […] in a statement, Universities minister Greg Clark said: “Universities must do more to get women in their top positions – if you think that over half of entrants at undergraduate level are women, it is shocking that only 17 per cent of vice-chancellors are female.”

CFP – 2015 Graduate Student Essay Prize – SWIP

CALL FOR PAPERS

SWIP-Analytic

2015 Graduate Student Essay Prize

SWIP-Analytic invites women graduate students to submit abstracts and papers in the areas of language, mind, metaphysics, logic, ethics, epistemology, & philosophy of science for consideration for a two hour presentation at SWIP-Analytic in NYC.

One student’s paper will be accepted for presentation on April 20th, 2015. The student will be awarded the 2015 SWIP-Analytic Graduate Student Paper Prize of $250. The winner will also be reimbursed for up to $250 of travel expenses.

Submission Requirements

(1) a pdf, .doc, or .docx of a maximum 300 word abstract and 5,000 word paper prepared for blind review

(2) document of identification with name, institution, and email address

Email both to swipanalytic [at] gmail [dot] com by February 1st, 2015

Notifications of decisions will be sent by March 1st 2015. The winning student paper presentation will take place on Monday, April 20th 2015 in New York City.

Please send any questions to swipanalytic [at] gmail [dot] com.

Organizers: Marilynn Johnson (CUNY), Chloe Cooper Jones (CUNY), Lisa Miracchi (NYU), Kate Pendoley (CUNY) Katherine Tullmann (CUNY).

SWIP-Analytic is made possible through the generous support of NYU’s New York Institute of Philosophy, The CUNY Graduate Center Office of the Provost, The John H. Kornblith Family Chair, and The CUNY Graduate Center Department of Philosophy.

swipanalytic.org

CFP: Feminist Philosophy for Wireless Philosophy (WiPhi)

From Paul Henne: “Wireless Philosophy (WiPhi) is an online project that introduces people to the practice of philosophy by making videos that are freely available in a form that is entertaining, interesting, and accessible to people with no background in the subject. This Spring WiPhi hopes to release a series of about 8-10 videos on topics in Feminist Philosophy. For this series, we are looking for introductory-level videos like “Introduction to Feminist Philosophy,” “Approaches to Feminist Philosophy,” and “Feminism and Gender.” We hope to bring our audience into Feminist Philosophy by first giving them the background and the tools they need to participate.

“Right now, we are looking for contributors to this series; that is, we are looking for Philosophy Professors to record lectures that we can animate. The recording process is very easy, and we have a team of people working to make the process as simple as possible for our contributors.”

If you’d like to contribute, please contact us.

If you’re a graduate student who would like to volunteer, please visit this page.

See our Trello Board for suggested topics and feel free to suggest more.

Learn more about the project, and visit WiPhi at Khan Academy.

The Parable of the Polygons

A reader sent us the link to this interactive site explaining “how small biases in favour of one’s own social group can lead to big social effects, and how small biases in favour of diversity can reverse the problem. It draws on a famous game theory paper about segregation by Thomas C. Schelling. Obviously it doesn’t cover everything but it might be a good way in for people unfamiliar.”