Students think their male professors are 'genius' and women professors are 'caring'

Ben Schmidt, an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University, built a website to visualize how students describe male and female professors differently on RateMyProfessor.com.

It's striking how different adjectives sort by gender — sometimes dramatically so. Men are more likely to be described as smart or brilliant.

The gender divide is deepest on the usage of "genius":

Female professors are more likely to be "nice" and "helpful" and "caring":

Men are much more likely to be described as funny, but also slightly more likely to be criticized as boring

(The most boring disciplines are evidently anthropology, philosophy, and history — or at least the disciplines where being boring is considered a serious drawback.)

And while "fair" doesn't have much of a gender divide, "unfair" skews decidedly female:

Schmidt is encouraging people on Twitter to play with the visualization tool and see what they can learn about students, professors, and gender stereotypes in higher education.

Two searches I recommend: 1. Women are much more often criticized for treating students "like children:" http://t.co/LOq8PtMbKH

— Benjamin Schmidt (@benmschmidt) February 7, 2015

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