Proportion of female recipients of resident-selected awards across Canada from 2000 to 2018: a retrospective observational study

Abstract

I n Canada, the number of women admitted to medical schools has exceeded the number of men for 25 years. 1 Despite over 2 decades of numerical parity, evidence shows that female physicians continue to be underrepresented in academia, leadership and administration in Canada and worldwide. 2-9 Substantial evidence exists that female phys icians are held to a higher standard than their male peers in evaluations, assessments, grant applications, publishing and reference letters. 10-19 Although there is evidence for explicit bias against female physicians, 20-22 most bias is implicit, mani festing in subtle ways such as word choice when describing trainees and differential access to operating time. 11,23-28 Awards from residency associations allow residents to rec ognize physicians for their contributions. Unlike awards issued by other organizations, awards from residency associa tions reflect the values of residents, who may have different levels of bias than practising physicians. These awards may contribute to promotion, hiring, prestige and recognition. 29,30 Previous studies that have examined award recipients by sex have focused on awards given to staff physicians by national societies. 29,31-34 We sought to evaluate whether male staff and resident physicians are more likely to receive an award from Canadian residency associations than female physicians. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study of award recipient sex for staff and resident physicians who received awards from Canadian residency associations for 2000-2018. Setting In Canada, there are 17 medical faculties distributed across 10 provinces: 6 in Ontario, 4 in Quebec, 2 in Alberta, and 1 each in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Maritime provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. There are 8 provincial or regional residency associations that represent

On‐call absences and academic recognition: A retrospective cohort analysis

“…A total of 1668 resident-years were studied, of which 579 (35%) had an absence and the remaining 1089 (65%) did not have an absence. Other university (15) 191 (18) Not graduated 147 (25) 115 (11) No fellowship (15) 172 (16) Unknown or transferred (5) 31…”

“…10,11 Several studies have identified an association of sex, race and parental status with the likelihood of academic recognition. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Selection committees for awards and promotions can also be affected by implicit bias and fallible judgement. 19,20 Trainee disclosure of mental illness and burnout has also been associated with lower evaluations, yet reluctance to disclose may further limit the ability of residency programmes to support individuals.…”

“…Residency programmes have the responsibility to support a trainee's growth as a clinician, yet resident assessment is affected by many external factors 10,11 . Several studies have identified an association of sex, race and parental status with the likelihood of academic recognition 12–18 . Selection committees for awards and promotions can also be affected by implicit bias and fallible judgement 19,20 .…”

Dismantling the master’s house: new ways of knowing for equity and social justice in health professions education

“…Institutions themselves can drive and support this work. This might include continuing professional development for health professionals and mentors in the form of longitudinal and deep antiracist (or antisexist) training, creating space and offering structural supports (including time and salary) to aid in the hypervisible and sometimes isolating work of restitution, holding people who cause harm to account (Richardson 2020c ), offering funding targeted towards underrepresented groups where systemic biases within peer review processes have often led to disadvantage (Doll and Thomas 2020 ), or taking into consideration during hiring, promotion, or awards processes how intersectionality doubly affects racialized faculty (and racialized women in particular) who tend to receive lower teaching evaluations than their white counterparts (Chávez and Mitchell 2020 ; Mohamed and Beagan 2019 ; Ross and Edwards 2016 ; Silverberg and Ruzycki 2020 ). Commitment to real structural change can neither be tokenistic nor temporary, it cannot appear as a strategic goal and then disappear soon after.…”

Shining a Light on Diversity in Team Science*

“…Despite a steady increase in the diversity of academic medicine faculty, it remains less heterogeneous than the general population in North America (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). While a greater focus of the published literature has been on the gender gap, studies have also found that URM faculty members have fewer publications and are less likely to be promoted than their White counterparts (7).…”