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- Page navigation anchor for RE: Call to Modernize Measurement of Gender, Race, and EthnicityRE: Call to Modernize Measurement of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
We thank Dr. Harding for comments about our recently published study and wholeheartedly agree with the need to modernize demographic measurement among Canadian surgeons.
We characterized gender according to images and self-identified pronouns on websites, and also used member checking with divisional members, often applying both methods. We think using both of these sources for gender characterization improved our accuracy, but acknowledge this method is imperfect. The reduction of gender to binary categories reflects existing Canadian academic surgeons, not a lack of inclusive methodology – in other words, no surgeons’ public self-identified pronouns were non-binary and no colleagues described them as such.
Regarding visible minority (VM) status, we applied an accepted definition according to the Employment Equity Act and used dual-verified view of VM as a surrogate of how surgeons may be perceived. As you discuss, this doesn’t account for the role that non-visible minority status may play on surgeon recruitment or that numerous understandings of VM exist2. VM status exists on a spectrum with unique experiences for minorities, which is impossible to completely capture. However, we think that self-reported VM status alone is an oversimplification of a complex variable. For example, a US study demonstrated that 61% of adults with mixed racial backgrounds don’t consider themselves multiracial – and ~47% say it’s because they only look like one race. To add com...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.References
- Song M. Rethinking minority status and ‘visibility’. Comparative Migration Studies. 2020;8(1):5.
- Parker K, Horowitz J, Morin R, Hugo Lopez. Multiracial in America. 2015; https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/06/11/multiracial-in-america/. Accessed January 28, 2024.
- Meyer VM, Benjamens S, Moumni ME, Lange JFM, Pol RA. Global Overview of Response Rates in Patient and Health Care Professional Surveys in Surgery: A Systematic Review. Annals of Surgery. 2022;275(1).
- Cunningham CT, Quan H, Hemmelgarn B, et al. Exploring physician specialist response rates to web-based surveys. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2015;15(1):32.
- Mansh M, White W, Gee-Tong L, et al. Sexual and Gender Minority Identity Disclosure During Undergraduate Medical Education: “In the Closet” in Medical School. Academic Medicine. 2015;90(5).
- Page navigation anchor for RE: Examining the equity and diversity characteristics of academic general surgeons hired in CanadaRE: Examining the equity and diversity characteristics of academic general surgeons hired in Canada
Call to Modernize Measurement of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
Upon reading the article by Gawad and colleagues1 we have suggestions to the authors, and the CJS readership who plan on conducting similar studies, to increase the inclusivity of their methods for evaluating gender, race, and ethnicity. We ask the authors to consider how adopting our methods would impact their primary outcomes.
The article aims to describe the gender and visible minority (VM) status of recently hired Canadian academic surgeons. Gender was ascertained by reviewing photos/pronouns or member checking. Gender was categorized into “male” or “female”, which is reductively binary, and does not include people who identify as nonbinary, agender, etc. Pronouns and physical appearance are common ways to express gender, but are unreliable indicators of gender identity and not a proxy for an individual’s internal “sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum”2. The interchangeable use of male and man (similarly female and woman) throughout the article conflates gender identity with language typically reserved for sex (which may be either sex as assignment at birth or current legal sex).
We suggest a more reliable, valid, and ethical approach to determine gender is through self-reporting. Survey measures that ask people to self-identify their current gender identity (how someone identifies with a variety of response options)4 and their gender modal...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.References
- 1. Gawad N, Purich K, Verhoeff K, Anderson B. Examining the equity and diversity characteristics of academic general surgeons hired in Canada. Can J Surg. Sep-Oct 2023;66(5):E458-e466. doi:10.1503/cjs.006122
- 2. Ashley FTimgmAmtpILE-SETB, Trans Selves: A resource by and for transgender communities, 2nd Edition, p. 22. Oxford University Press.
- 3. Stanbrook MB, Salami B. CMAJ's new guidance on the reporting of race and ethnicity in research articles. Cmaj. 2023:E236-e238. vol. 6.
- 4. Lowik A, Cameron, J. J., Dame, J., Ford, J., Pulice-Farrow, L., Salway, T., van Anders, S., & Shannon, K. (2022). Gender and Sex in Methods & Measurement - Research Equity Toolkit. “Tool #4: Asking About & Measuring Participants’ Genders & Sexes,” Cent
- 5. Bauer GR, Mahendran M, Braimoh J, Alam S, Churchill S. Identifying visible minorities or racialized persons on surveys: can we just ask? Can J Public Health. 2020 Jun;111(3):371-382. doi: 10.17269/s41997-020-00325-2. Epub 2020 May 28. PMID: 32468439; P