Gender Bias in High School Congressional Debate Scores

Abstract

Throughout history, stereotypes and negative ideology have led to gender inequality. This paper explores the presence of gender inequality in the scoring of high school congressional debate. The study conducted was a quantitative analysis of Ohio Speech and Debate Association tournament score sheets from 2013-2020. The rank total, preliminary result, and average preliminary result of each competitor of three tournaments per season were recorded to discover if one gender tends to score better than the other. The results showed that both genders have about equal percentages of participants who receive high scores (31.28% of females and 32.64% of males), medium range scores (34.60% of females and 32.32% of males), and low scores (34.12% of females and 34.76% of males). Chi-square tests completed on the data showed no statistical significance in the difference between the scores of female and male participants (p=.89481). According to the data collected, there is no significant evidence of a gender bias present in the scoring of high school congressional debate.