C. Peck1, S. J. Schmidt2, D. A. Latimore1, M. I. O’Connor1 1Yale University School Of Medicine,New Haven, CT, USA 2Yale Law School,New Haven, CT, USA
Introduction: Gender-marked titles have shown to be exclusionary of women in a variety of professional settings. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the use of the words "chair" and "chairman" on academic websites for both surgical and non-surgical departments in the US.
Methods:
Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics departments from 139 US allopathic medical schools were reviewed. Official websites were screened for use of the word chair or chairman. Any use of the word chairman was classified according to type of use and location on the website. Patterns of chair use were compared by specialty, region, and gender of the current chair.
Results:
Overall, 59.8% of all academic departments used only the gender-neutral term chair. In surgical specialties, this number was significantly lower (p<.001)—40.3% in Orthopedics and 42.5% in Neurosurgery, compared to 70.1% and 64.0% in Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics respectively. Departments with female chairs used gender-neutral titles 89% of the time, compared to 53.1% in departments led by males. Gender-neutral title use was highest in the West across specialties (p<.01). The proportion of female chairs was highest in Obstetrics and Gynecology at 32.5%, compared to 26.0% in Pediatrics, 4.3% in Neurosurgery, and 0.8% in Orthopedics. Use of the word chair correlated with a 437% increase in the likelihood of having a female chair (p<.01).
Conclusion:
Our studies show persistence of the gender-marked title "chair" across academic specialties—particularly in surgical specialties—and suggest a association between title use and overall gender diversity. Increasing the use of gender-neutral titles may be a simple way to promote gender parity in academic surgery.