Gender Coding in Recruitment Materials for Emergency Medicine Residency Programs.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Gender Studies
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Women are underrepresented in emergency medicine (EM) careers despite comprising nearly half of medical students.
• Gender-coded language in job ads can influence applicant demographics in various industries.
• The impact of gendered language in EM residency recruitment on gender distribution is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender bias in the language used in emergency medicine residency recruitment materials.
• To determine if gender-coded language correlates with the gender distribution of residents in EM programs.

Main Methods:

• Reviewed recruitment materials from 101 ACGME-accredited EM residency programs.
• Coded program websites for gender bias using established linguistic research.
• Assessed the gender distribution of current residents within each program.

Main Results:

• Most EM residency recruitment materials (91/101) contained gender-coded language (masculine, feminine, or neutral with coded elements).
• Gender coding in recruitment language was not a predictor of the proportion of female residents in a program (P = 0.61).
• Residency class gender distributions varied widely (10%-92% female), averaging 38% women.

Conclusions:

• Gender-coded language is common in EM residency recruitment but does not correlate with resident gender demographics.
• Further investigation is warranted to explore how gendered language in recruitment materials affects resident application decisions.