Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Lightning Round: Dancing Backwards in High Heels: Female Professors Experience More Work Demands and Special Favor Requests, Particularly from Academically Entitled Students

Moakley Auditorium

Gender stereotypes are alive and well in the US, and they affect men and women in various contexts. This talk focuses on two research studies from a recently published paper investigating how male and female professors may be perceived and treated differently by students. In Study 1, my collaborators and I found that female (versus male) professors report receiving more requests for standard work demands and special favors from students, which impact female professors' self-reported emotional labor. In Study 2, we found that academically entitled students (i.e., those who feel deserving of success in college regardless of effort/performance) had stronger expectations that a female (vs. male) professor would grant their special favor requests and consequently forecasted that they would be more upset if their requests were denied. These results highlight the extra burdens experienced by female professors and the need to develop strategies to prevent these kinds of requests.