The quality of a relationship between the researcher and the supervisor much determines the success and the quality of the research work. The better the relationship, the better the chances of achieving a successful end of the research work, and vice versa. Such relationships are influenced and determined by a variety of factors, gender matching being one. This paper aims at disc using the role of gender matching in making a decision about a thesis supervisor (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004).

Definitely gender cannot be overlooked in the process of identifying or getting a thesis supervisor. The supervisor’s chemistry is very important and so gender matching has a big influence while making a choice. By default, there has been seen that men who get female supervisors for their thesis end up doing well than when having men supervisors while female students who engage with male students end up performing better than men students who match male supervisors for their thesis. However, the female students matching male supervisors end up with lesser content generally which reflects dismal work hence less of success. There exists, in many cases, a premium for male students writing their thesis under the supervision of female supervisors and a penalty for female students who choose male supervisors (Duan & Roehlke, 2001).

In conclusion, the productivity of a thesis is generally dependent on the supervisor. More so the success of the thesis is more about the supervisor’s willingness to help the researcher and the chemistry or relationship between the two. Naturally, there is a higher possibility that a male student will perform well under the supervision of a female supervisor while a female student may find success hard under a male supervisor. It is therefore very important for one to consider

gender matching in choosing their thesis supervisor, for gender affects the relationship between the two, and so the productivity of the thesis (Gatmon et al. 2001).