Gender bias of Ohio physicians in the evaluation of the personal statements of residency applicants.

Sexism has been documented at every level of medical training as well as in the community of practicing physicians. Although there is speculation in the literature about sexist attitudes and perceived sexual discrimination influencing a medical student's choice of specialty, there are few data on gender bias in the evaluation of residency candidates applying in different specialties. In 1989, the authors created six personal statements of interest in a residency, each from a different type of fictitious residency candidate (three men, three women, at three levels of medical school achievement) and mailed one or another of the statements, chosen at random, to the 2,478 board-certified Ohio physicians practicing in six specialties in which U.S. women in residencies were underrepresented (less than 12%) compared with the percentage of women in medical schools, and to the 3,586 board-certified Ohio physicians in another six specialties in which women in residencies were overrepresented (more than 38%). The physicians consistently rated the women candidates more favorably than they did the men candidates.