Background: Gender disparity in orthopedic residency programs is evident. Limited research investigates if gender attitudes deter women from applying to orthopedic surgery residency programs.
Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to a single medical school which explored medical students' perceptions regarding their gender's influence on matching into orthopedic surgery residency, alongside motivators and barriers for applying. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests analyzed potential association and trends using SPSS computation with alpha set at 0.05.
Results: 202 medical students completed the questionnaire. Women respondents were found to be 10.6 times more likely to report their own gender as a barrier to matching to orthopedic surgery residency compared to men.
Conclusion: A significant proportion of women perceive their gender as a barrier to matching. Dismantling gender stereotypes may increase consideration of women medical students of orthopedic surgery as a career option.
Keywords: Diversity; Gender; Inclusion; Orthopedic; Student; Surgery.
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