Gender bias in female physician assessments. Women considered better suited for qualitative research.
OBJECTIVE
To analyse whether physician assessment of scientific quality is biased by gender.


METHODS
Two fictive research abstracts on back pain treatment were constructed, one with a quantitative and one with a qualitative design. Authorship was assigned to either a woman or a man.


METHODS
1637 randomly selected Swedish physicians were asked to judge the scientific quality of the two designs in a structured assessment form.


METHODS
The assessments of 1364 abstracts (286 female and 394 male assessors) were analysed by chi-square test and logistic regression.


RESULTS
The quantitative design was judged the same, regardless of the gender of the author or assessor. The qualitative design, however, was ranked as more accurate, trustworthy, relevant and interesting with a female author. Women assessors upgraded female authors more than male authors, while male assessors reflected no gender differences. Assessor speciality interacted with judgement; physicians in primary care appreciated the qualitative abstract more than hospital physicians did (OR 2.78; 95% CI 1.97-3.92).


CONCLUSIONS
Gender seems to affect scientific evaluations. The results are worth considering in situations where research is judged and interpreted, in medical tutoring, research guidance, peer reviewing and certainly in forming evaluation committees for research funding.
Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Family Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden. evajon@minmail.net
Eva E
EE
Johansson
Gunilla
G
Risberg
Katarina
K
Hamberg
Göran
G
Westman
D000328:Adult; D001319:Authorship; D001416:Back Pain; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010822:Physicians, Women; D011287:Prejudice; D012106:Research / Q000145:classification*; D012107:Research Design; D013548:Sweden