Emergency Medicine Gender in Resident Leadership Study (EM GIRLS): The Gender Distribution Among Chief Residents

Abstract

ObjectivesThe goal of this research was to determine the gender distribution of chief residents in emergency medicine (EM) residencies in the United States to explore whether the gender leadership gap is present at the resident level in EM.MethodsThe investigators compiled a list of EM residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Investigators reached out to the programs using established best practices in survey distribution collecting the following: program name, program location, program length, total number of residents, total number of female residents, total number of chief residents, and the total number of female chief residents.ResultsOf the 223 programs contacted 194 programs responded and 182 programs were included in the study (a response rate of 82%). As of the 2019 to 2020 academic year, female EM residents account for 37.0% (2,459/6,718) of all EM residents and female EM chief residents account for 42.2% (250/593) of EM chief residents. The proportion of female EM chief residents was significantly higher than the proportion of both female EM residents (42.2% vs. 37%, p = 0.007) and female EM attending physicians (42.2% vs. 27.5%, p < 0.001). When comparing proportions of female residents based on duration of program, female physicians comprised 35.0% (1,652/4,720) of residents at 3‐year programs and 40.4% (807/1998) of residents at 4‐year programs (p < 0.01).ConclusionsWhile the proportion of female EM residents remains significantly lower than the proportion of male residents, females and males are similarly represented at the chief resident role.

Direct Observation Tools in Emergency Medicine: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Sex biases and inequality have been demonstrated in EM among attending physicians, but the data among EM residents are more limited. [67][68][69][70][71] Dayal et al 18 found that female residents had a lower overall rating on end-of-shift evaluations compared with male residents, while Mueller et al 29 found that female residents received less consistent feedback than male residents. Interestingly, Siegelman et al 32 did not find a difference in scoring between male and female residents in their simulation-based OSCE study.…”

“…Within our data, we found conflicting information regarding the effect of sex on direct observation tools. Sex biases and inequality have been demonstrated in EM among attending physicians, but the data among EM residents are more limited 67–71 . Dayal et al 18 found that female residents had a lower overall rating on end‐of‐shift evaluations compared with male residents, while Mueller et al 29 found that female residents received less consistent feedback than male residents.…”

Here to chair: Gender differences in the path to leadership

“…Despite a predominance of men in emergency medicine residency training programs, women and men are represented similarly in chief resident roles. 35 The numbers of women taking on the administrative role of chief resident may increase the number of women entering the pipeline to EM administration and operations leadership, but the impact is yet to be determined.…”

Diversity begets diversity: Factors contributing to emergency medicine residency gender diversity

“…The EM GIRLS study of residency leadership found that female EM residents accounted for 37% of all EM residents and 42.2% of EM chief residents. 9 Adding on to the previously established literature, the goal of this study was to examine if there was a relationship between resident gender and program leadership gender.…”