Does gender impact upon application rejection rate among Canadian radiology residency applicants?

Abstract

PURPOSE: To determine if and how gender ratios have changed within Canadian radiology, and to determine if gender discrimination occurs at the level of the radiology resident selection committee. METHODS: The Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Association of Radiologists, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and Canadian Residency Matching Service provided gender-specific data. We compared the proportion of female applicants who ranked a radiology program as their top choice and were rejected from any radiology program with the corresponding proportion for male applicants. RESULTS: The numbers of women and men being awarded an MD from a Canadian university equalized nearly a decade ago. Women continue to be numerically underrepresented among practicing radiologists; however, the proportion of women continues to increase so that there is 1 female radiologist in practice to every 3 male radiologists in practice in 2005. More male medical students ranked a radiology residency training program as their top choice in the residency match; however, of those who did, they were as likely as women to be rejected from a radiology residency training program. Grouping all female and male graduating medical students participating in the residency match and ranking a radiology residency as their top choice between 1993 and 2004, the odds of men being rejected were 1.4 times (95% CI 0.99-1.9, p = 0.07) greater than for women. CONCLUSIONS: There continues to be more men than women radiologists in practice; however, the female-to-male ratio continues to increase. Our data suggest that discrimination against female applicants at the level of radiology residency selection does not occur.

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