Gender role incongruency in general surgery applicants

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Residency Admissions
• Gender Studies in Medicine

Background:

• Gender stereotypes can negatively impact hiring and promotion in professional fields.
• The medical residency application process, including interviews and rankings, presents opportunities for gender bias.
• Understanding perceived gender roles is critical for equitable selection in competitive medical specialties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine potential gender bias in perceived gender roles among medical students applying for general surgery residency.
• To analyze self-identified adjectives used by applicants and compare them across gender and race.

Main Methods:

• 269 medical students applying for general surgery residency positions were analyzed.
• Applicants provided a single adjective to describe themselves.
• Adjectives were categorized into grindstone, ability, communal, or agentic traits for comparison.

Main Results:

• Women constituted 42% of the applicants.
• Male applicants were more likely to use grindstone/communal adjectives (73.2% vs 57.1%).
• Male applicants were less likely to use agentic adjectives compared to women (21% vs 35%).

Conclusions:

• Women general surgery residency applicants more frequently self-identified with ability/agentic adjectives than men, contrary to traditional gender stereotypes.
• Findings suggest a potential disconnect between applicant self-perception and traditional gender role expectations.
• Bias training is recommended to mitigate negative impacts of perceived gender role violations in residency selection.