It's an old study but as a student I do notice that our female professors, lecturers and TAs often receive more criticism so I got curious, I'm in engineering and I have noticed my classmates say some nasty words about a few of them for being strict despite having had male professors being even hasher or call them hot and joke about some PhD assistant while in case of guys they tend to ask them questions and help and visit them in their office hours more.

"As examples of such gender bias, students often expect their male and female professors to behave in different ways or to act according to stereotypes (Anderson and Smith, 2005). Men are commonly characterized by ambition, domination, and independence, while women are often characterized for their compassion, emotional expressiveness, and other care-related characteristics (Koch et al., 2015). Students may hold their professors accountable to these gender-based behaviors and can even be critical of those professors who violate these expectations (Dalmia et al., 2005; Sprague & Massoni, 2005). On the contrary, students perceive professors fulfilling their expectations of gender more favorably (Andersen & Miller, 1997). Moreover, female professors not meeting such gender-based expectations are viewed less favorably; while male professors not exhibiting strong interpersonal traits are not categorized the same (Basow and Montgomery, 2005)."

"Several studies have shown that women receive lower SET assessments than their male colleagues (Heckert et al., 2006; Tatro 1995). MacNell, Driscoll, and Hunt (2015) showed that students rated female professors more harshly than male professors which suggested that the former would have to work harder than the latter to receive comparable ratings. In another study, female professors were less favorably rated in SET scores, but the results heavily depended on the degree program. For example, in engineering courses, they received the lowest rating; while, in business courses, they received the highest scores (Bianchini et al., 2013). Wagner, Rieger, and Voorvelt (2016) suggested a gender bias against female professors in SET and therefore, using them in hiring and promotion decisions might put them under disadvantage. Also, Mengel et al., (2019) found that female professors systematically received lower evaluations from both female and male students. This finding was stronger for male students and junior female professors in general; but, particularly, those in math-related courses consistently received lower evaluation scores. They found no evidence that these differences were driven by gender disparities in teaching skills."

"In a different address, Heck et al. (2002) showed that female professors received higher SET ratings, particularly with respect to the quality of instruction and the ability to communicate. One explanation for these mixed results with respect to gender may be physical attractiveness. In two studies with large samples taken from [RateMyProfessor.com](http://RateMyProfessor.com) and performed across different university disciplines, a significant positive correlation was reported between the perceived attractiveness of the professors and their corresponding ratings (Freng and Webber, 2009; Hamermesh and Parker, 2005). Another reason for the mixed results may be the interactions between genders and the types of classes that are being taught (Bianchini et al., 2013)."

Professors' sex impact how students evaluate their teaching, affecting women more negatively.