Further Evidence on the Performance of Female Versus Male Accounting Students.

Abstract A 1987 paper reported that female students outperformed male students in upper-division accounting courses and that students had higher course grades in female-instructed classes than in male-instructed classes. The researchers posited four possible causes for the superior performance of female students, each with important implications. They also argued that coordinated grading policies may be needed to equalize course grades across instructors of different gender. The importance of these implications and suggestions makes further examination of the effects essential. Thus, the present study tests the generalizabiiity of the gender effects on classroom performance in a course with a strictly coordinated grading policy. This research compared the performance of 171 female and 230 male students in four female-instructed and seven male-instructed sections of a managerial accounting course. Results indicated that neither student gender nor instructor gender impacted student course scores, except through an interaction of the two. Male students performed better than females in male-instructed classes, and female students performed better with female instructors than with male instructors.