Investigating Association Between Sex and Faculty Teaching Evaluation in General Surgery Residency Programs: A...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Gender Studies in Medicine

Background:

• Gender disparities exist in academic surgery, with women faculty often receiving lower teaching evaluations.
• These lower scores can negatively impact career progression for women in male-dominated specialties.
• Understanding factors influencing teaching evaluations is crucial for promoting gender equity in surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between faculty gender and teaching evaluation scores in general surgery residency programs.
• To determine if the proportion of women faculty or residents influences these evaluation scores.
• To challenge the hypothesis that women faculty receive lower scores.

Main Methods:

• Anonymous resident evaluations of faculty teaching from 21 general surgery programs were collected over one year.
• A composite score was calculated for each faculty member.
• Statistical analysis, including cluster-adjusted t-tests, compared male and female faculty scores, controlling for program-level correlations. Programs were stratified by quartiles of female representation.

Main Results:

• A total of 20,187 evaluations for 1,177 faculty members were analyzed.
• Women faculty had significantly higher composite teaching evaluation scores (90.6%) compared to men (89.5%, p < 0.05).
• Female faculty scores were higher than male faculty scores in programs with the lowest representation of women faculty and residents.

Conclusions:

• Contrary to the initial hypothesis, female general surgery faculty received higher teaching evaluation scores than their male counterparts.
• This finding may reflect evolving gender dynamics and attitudes in a traditionally male-dominated field.
• Higher scores for female faculty were observed in programs with lower overall female representation, suggesting a complex interplay of factors.