Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) play a central role in higher education yet often reflect gender biases that undermine fairness and teaching quality. Drawing on Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs), this study proposes a bottom-up framework of Implicit Professor Theories (IPTs) to capture students’ mental models of male vs. female professors. Rather than restricting analysis to agentic (male-typed) or communal (female-typed) traits, we elicited characteristics students spontaneously associate with “male” or “female” professors. We then linked these descriptors to satisfaction with and perceived learning from those characteristics, and with overall teaching excellence ratings. Using an experimental design, our results show that students do hold gendered IPTs, with male professors perceived as more agentic (e.g., confident, knowledgeable) and female professors as more communal (e.g., caring) or fluid (creative, intelligent). Contrary to a uniform “female penalty,” male professors were rated higher on satisfaction, while female professors scored higher on learning and excellence. We further uncovered energetic (enthusiastic, engaging) as a gender-neutral dimension that boosts evaluations across both genders. This suggests that IPTs include coexisting prototypes, which sometimes reinforce but also modify traditional stereotypes. For business schools reliant on SETs, the study underscores the importance of multidimensional assessments and an understanding of complex gendered IPTs. Overall, gendered IPTs enrich our understanding of SET bias by highlighting how context-specific characteristics—beyond agentic and communal—shape student perceptions.
