Gender Coding in Recruitment Materials for Emergency Medicine Residency Programs

Almost 50% of medical students are women, yet women make up only 28% of emergency medicine-trained physicians. Studies, in other industries, have shown using masculine- or feminine-coded language in job advertisements affects the numbers of male versus female applicants who apply. Our research explores gender bias in the language of emergency medicine (EM) residency recruitment materials, and assesses if this language correlates to the gender distribution within studied residencies.

One hundred and one ACGME accredited EM residency programs (2021) were reviewed. Each program's website recruitment materials were decoded based upon prior research on gender bias in language. Recruitment materials were categorized as highly masculine, masculine, highly feminine, feminine, or neutral. Each program website was reviewed to determine current residency classes' gender distribution.

One hundred and one EM residencies were reviewed. Residency sizes ranged from 17 to 86 trainees and were comprised 10%-92% females, with the average class breakdown of 38% women. The majority of EM residency recruitment materials contained some gender coded language (n = 91). Forty-two programs contained masculine or strongly masculine language, 41 contained feminine or strongly feminine language, and 17 programs coded as globally neutral, although 8 of these still contained gender-coded language. Gender coding in the language of recruitment materials was not predictive of proportion of female residents within the program (P = 0.61).

Gender-coded language is common in residency recruitment materials for EM but does not have a relationship to resident class demographics. Further studies should examine whether gendered language in recruitment materials impacts residents' choices during the application process.