Gender bias in colorectal surgery fellowship letters of recommendation.

BACKGROUND: As leaders strive to create equitable surgical pipelines, one process under scrutiny is letters of recommendation (LORs). We sought to review the Colon and Rectal Surgery (CRS) Resident Candidate Assessment questionnaire and LORs for gendered differences. METHODS: This retrospective observational study of letters of recommendation to CRS fellowship during the 2018-2019 application cycle utilized linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015) software to assess letter length and themes comparing differences by applicant and referee gender. RESULTS: 103 applicants (35 â€‹% women) with 363 LORs (16 â€‹% written by women) were included. Short answer responses were longer for women applicants, while LORs were longer for men applicants (368 vs 325 words p â€‹= â€‹0.03). Men applicants' strengths had more technical skill descriptors, while women applicants' strengths had more emotional language and cognitive and perceptual words. CONCLUSIONS: This study found significant differences between LORs written for CRS fellowship applicants based on gender.

The Importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Effective, Ethical Leadership.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) increases performance through input of differing ideas and perspectives, leading to outcomes such as increased diagnostic accuracy, patient satisfaction, quality of care, and retention of talent. DEI can be difficult to establish due to the presence of unaddressed biases and ineffective policies against discrimination and noninclusive behaviors. Nevertheless, these complexities can be overcome through the integration of principles of DEI into the standard operations of health care, incentivizing DEI efforts through leadership curriculums, and highlighting the value proposition of diversifying our workforce as a critical asset to success.