Gender and Letters of Recommendation: A Linguistic Comparison of the Impact of Gender on General Surgery Residency Applicants

OBJECTIVE: We investigated letters of recommendation for general surgery residency applicants to determine if any gender-based disparities exist. DESIGN: A dictionary of over 400 terms describing applicants and 24 unique categories into which these terms were classified was created. Word count and language comparisons were performed using linguistic analysis software to assess for differences in applicant characterization, letter length, and writing style between male and female applicants and letter writers. SETTING: A large, Midwest, academic general surgery residency program. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred and fifty-nine letters of recommendation received during the 2015 and 2016 interview cycles were selected for analysis. RESULTS: Average word count was approximately equal for male and female applicants (503 vs 508, respectively). Female writers wrote longer letters (mean word count 545.5 vs 497.1, p = 0.028). "Standout" terms were more likely to be used to describe female applicants. Otherwise no statistically significant differences in applicant characterization were discovered. CONCLUSIONS: Letters of recommendation for general surgery are written using similar descriptive terms and lengths for male and female applicants. This suggests that there is no specific gender disadvantage with regard to letters of recommendation when applying for general surgery residency. (C) 2018 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.