A new study suggests female professors receive more grief from students compared to their counterparts.
Eastern Washington University has found students perceive female teachers more nurturing than males, and are subject to more request to give extensions and boost grades.
Associate Professor of Gender Studies Jacqueline Holler says most of this can be explained as unconscious bias.
“We expect different things from men and women. One of the things we expect, not just in university but as society as a whole, is that women will be nicer and women will be more agreeable.”
Students look to female 
teachers as being more nurturing and easier to approach when requesting something, but this also leaves an emotional toll and heavy load on them.
“Many other articles have also suggested there is an additional work load associated with this kind of thing and in a sociological world it’s called emotional labour. The work that people do to make other people feel cared for. So there is a burden that goes along with it.”
Most female professors are actually aware of this and have ways to deal with it.
Just being aware about the way we perceive men and women in society can help in tackling stereotypes and unconscious bias says Holler.