{"id":1934,"date":"2016-06-13T07:34:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2018-09-24T10:46:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T15:46:54","slug":"gender-affect-evaluations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/2016\/06\/13\/gender-affect-evaluations\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Our Gender Affect How Students Evaluate Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Unconscious biases exist everywhere and medicine is no exception. These biases are developed at a young age and strengthened over time. Unconscious bias refers to social stereotypes about certain demographics or groups of people that individuals form outside of their own conscious awareness. The traditional association of men with work and women with family and of men as physicians and women as nurses has long been held. How many times have you been mistaken for the nurse? How many times have you heard \u00ad \u201cYou are the doctor?\u201d with an air of surprise.<\/p>\n
I have experienced gender bias from a young age. I can remember being asked as a high school student \u00ad \u201cWow, you plan to be a doctor? Do you plan to be a mother?\u201d Another biased assumption that professional women cannot, do not or choose not to have families. When I was in undergrad, as a woman, I was in the minority with my classmates, but the pre\u00admed group was collegial. There was bias from advisors but not from my peers. I still remember my pre\u00admed advisor telling me \u00ad \u201cYou are a woman so you need to wear a skirt suit to your medical school interviews. Don\u2019t wear pants.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remember thinking \u00ad Isn\u2019t it obvious from my appearance that I am a woman. Why would I need to wear a skirt? What?! Women wear pants. Throughout my medical school rotations, there were the comments from patients \u00ad \u201cHi honey; sweetie; I am\u00a0surprised\u00ad you are going to be a doctor? Or you aren\u2019t the nurse?\u201d<\/p>\n
During residency, there were many of the same comments from patients. There was the occasional \u201cER \u00ad why would you want to do that? You have to be really tough to do that\u201d \u00ad with the implication that as a woman I am not tough enough. During residency, I felt fully supported by my peers and faculty, but there was bias that seemed to be most pronounced with senior women nurses. \u201cAren\u2019t you going to get help to do that reduction. You aren\u2019t strong enough\u201d I am not sure if this was unconscious bias, gender bias or just the \u201chazing\u201d that often goes on between residents and nurses. The bias still continues in my everyday practice. As the woman physician side by side with the male nurse, the patients\u2019 still frequently state \u00ad \u201cWait, you are the doctor and he is the nurse?\u201d We have all experienced bias in one form or another but what is its impact?<\/p>\n
There is little data in the medical literature regarding the presence and impact of unconscious and gender biases in medical education. A recent study by Morgan et al. sought to investigate if a difference exists in medical student evaluations of male and female faculty physicians on four required clinical rotations \u00ad obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, surgery and internal medicine. They found that female physicians received lower scores on the evaluation item \u201coverall quality of teaching\u201d in all four clinical rotations. This discrepancy was largest in the surgery rotation and smallest in internal medicine. The discrepancy was present in both non\u00adsurgical and surgical clerkships and in both male\u00ad and female \u00adpredominant fields.<\/p>\n
They found no difference in faculty evaluations based on medical student gender. The differences on individual rotations were not significant, although they were all weighted towards the male attendings. \u00a0However, when all the evaluations were summarized together, there was a statistically significant advantage in being male.<\/p>\n