Gender-based differences in letters of recommendation in applications for general surgery residency programs in Canada

BACKGROUND: In Canada, residency programs do not have many objective measures for ranking candidates. Instead, ranking relies on subjective measures such as letters of reference, which can be affected by the genders of the writer and the applicant. Our study assesses letters of recommendation for a general surgery program in Canada to categorize differences in reference letters based on the genders of applicant and letter writer. METHODS: We assessed 215 reference letters from 51 general surgery candidates for systematic differences in the descriptors used for male and female applicants and differences based on male and female authorship. RESULTS: Female applicants were more often described as mature, pleasant and flexible. Male applicants were more often described as having initiative, completing research, earning awards and performing extracurricular activities. Female writers were more likely to highlight an applicant’s interest, initiative, response to feedback, knowledge of their limits, flexibility, communication, achievement in research and awards, confidence and ability to be a good assistant. Significantly more female applicants had female letter writers, compared with male applicants. CONCLUSION: These differences may affect the acceptance of applicants based on their gender and the genders of people who recommend them. Future research is required to explore how these differences in how applicants are described may affect residency selection committees’ perceptions and rankings of applicants.