A study published this month adds to the many concerns about judging faculty members using student evaluations of their teaching. But this one suggests that gender imbalances in departments exacerbate the issue.

Researchers found gender bias after analyzing Clemson University student evaluations of 1,885 tenure-track and non-tenure-track educators from academic year 2018–19. Studies have found gender bias before, but the new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdescribes a threat to both male and female faculty members’ futures in departments with lopsided numbers of men and women.

“In departments with gender disparities, those in the gender majority were evaluated more positively than those in the gender minority when teaching upper-level courses,” the authors wrote. “In contrast, those in the gender minority tended to be evaluated more positively than those in the gender majority when they taught lower-level courses, although not [statistically] significantly so. These patterns were not evident in departments nearer to gender parity.”