Perceptions of gender-based discrimination during surgical training and practice

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic distribution of survey respondents^a

	N	%		N	%
Age			Ethnicity
< 25	1	<1	White	257	77
25–30	63	19	African American	9	3
31–35	84	25	Hispanic/Latino	8	2
36–40	38	11	Asian	37	11
41–45	32	10	Native American/Pacific Islander	1	<1
> 45	116	35	Combination	22	7
Marital status			Geographic region of practice
Single	106	32	Northeast	98	29
Married	196	59	Southeast	60	18
Widowed	1	<1	Midwest	93	28
Divorced	23	7	Pacific Northwest	33	10
Separated	1	<1	Southwest	39	12
Civil Union	7	2	International	11	3
Surgical specialty			Years in practice
General surgery	213	64	0 (please select if still in training)	126	38
Breast	46	14	1–5	52	16
Cardiothoracic	16	5	6–10	33	10
Transplant	12	4	11–15	39	12
Vascular	24	7	16–20	22	7
No response	23	7	21–25	28	8
Practice settings			26–30	16	5
Rural/small community hospital	25	7	> 30	18	5
Managed care/HMO	12	4	Still in training
VA hospital	18	5	Yes	133	40
Academic/University hospital center	213	64	No	204	60
Private hospital	86	26
No response	12	4

^aSubjects indicated demographic information; only female subjects were included in data analysis.

Table 2 Degree of frequency of experienced and observed discrimination^a,b

	Experienced discrimination		Observed discrimination
	N	%	N	%
Significant frequency
Medical school	172	53	157	54
Residency training	204	67	161	64
Practice	125	68	88	54
Insignificant frequency
Medical school	107	33	76	26
Residency training	63	21	52	21
Practice	41	23	39	25
No frequency
Medical school	44	13	53	19
Residency training	36	12	39	15
Practice	18	9	32	21

^aSubjects indicated the frequency of experienced or observed discrimination during each training period; they were permitted to indicate only one frequency for each training period.

^bSignificant, insignificant, and no frequency categories were determined based on ratings indicated on a Likert scale.

Table 3 Perceived sources and recipients of discrimination^a

Source of perceived discrimination,	Male		Female		Source of perceived discrimination,	Male		Female		Recipient of perceived discrimination,	Male		Female
experience	N	%	N	%	observation	N	%	N	%	observation	N	%	N	%
Administrative staff	134	6	173	12	Administrative staff	103	6	131	12	Administrative staff	2	<1	83	5
Attending physician	508	23	117	8	Attending physician	426	25	91	9	Attending physician	17	7	230	13
Clerical staff	60	3	213	14	Clerical staff	45	3	147	14	Clerical staff	6	3	94	5
EMS staff	107	5	58	4	EMS staff	74	4	31	3	EMS staff	3	1	24	1
Intern	152	7	42	3	Intern	122	7	35	3	Intern	32	14	291	16
Medical school professor	191	9	28	2	Medical school professor	165	10	27	3	Medical school professor	8	3	74	4
Medical student	146	7	46	3	Medical student	109	6	33	3	Medical student	53	23	311	17
Nursing staff	94	4	428	29	Nursing staff	92	5	317	30	Nursing staff	29	13	178	10
Patient	460	21	268	18	Patient	295	17	171	16	Patient	29	13	101	6
Resident	314	16	98	7	Resident	274	16	81	8	Resident	51	22	398	22
Total instances of perceived discrimination	2166		1471		Total instances of perceived discrimination	1705		1064		Total instances of perceived discrimination	230		1784
Percentage (%) of total instances of perceived discrimination (N=3637)	60		40		Percentage (%) of total instances of perceived discrimination (N=2717)	63		37		Percentage (%) of total instances of perceived discrimination (N=2014)	11		89

^aSubjects indicated whether or not they experienced or observed discrimination from a male, a female, or both; they were permitted to indicate multiple sources or no sources for each category.

Table 4 Order of indicated frequencies of experienced types of discrimination^a

		No experience			Five or less total experiences			Annual experience			Monthly experience			Weekly experience
		N	%		N	%		N	%		N	%		N	%
1.	Inappropriate firing from position	127	25	Barriers to promotion or barriers to job progression	52	15	Disparities in salaries or benefits	41	26	Inappropriate verbal exchange	25	29	Lack of respect from medical team	25	23
2.	Barriers to hire for applied positions	92	18	Lack of respect from medical team	50	15	Lack of respect from medical team	31	17	Lack of respect from medical team	16	18	Inappropriate verbal exchange	24	22
3.	Bias against pregnancy	75	15	Sexual harassment	49	15	Inappropriate verbal exchange	30	17	Disparities in salaries or benefits	13	15	Disparities in salaries or benefits	21	19
4.	Sexual harassment	66	13	Inappropriate verbal exchange	47	14	Barriers to promotion or barriers to job progression	30	17	Barriers to promotion or barriers to job progression	12	14	Barriers to promotion or barriers to job progression	12	11
5.	Disparities in salaries or benefits	48	9	Barriers to hire for applied positions	46	14	Sexual harassment	20	11	Sexual harassment	9	10	Bias against pregnancy	11	10
6.	Barriers to promotion or barriers to job progression	47	9	Bias against pregnancy	44	13	Bias against pregnancy	16	9	Bias against pregnancy	7	8	Sexual harassment	9	8
7.	Lack of respect from medical team	31	6	Disparities in salaries or benefits	30	9	Barriers to hire for applied positions	7	4	Barriers to hire for applied positions	4	5	Barriers to hire for applied positions	4	4
8.	Inappropriate verbal exchange	27	5	Inappropriate firing from position	18	5	Inappropriate firing from position	4	2	Inappropriate firing from position	1	1	Inappropriate firing from position	3	3

^aSubjects indicated the frequency of each experience type based on the above five categories; subjects were permitted to indicate more than one type of experience for a given temporal category.