Educational Objective: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to understand the long history of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in medicine and gain an appreciation for the fact that this issue is still widespread in the field of otolaryngology, with trainees identifying as female being disproportionately affected by sexual harassment.
Objectives: This study sought to better understand the incidence of sexual harassment amongst otolaryngology residents.
Study Design: This is a survey based study targeting current otolaryngology residents at US training programs.
Methods: From June through August 2018, survey invitations and links to an anonymous survey were sent to otolaryngology residency program directors in the United States and on listservs targeting otolaryngology residents. Questions included demographics (gender, sexual orientation, and postgraduate year), and a variety of questions assessing the occurrence of different forms of sexual harassment in the workplace. Results were then analyzed by calculating overall affirmative responses to each question, then breaking down into percentage of males versus percentage of females responding affirmatively to each question.
Results: Both male and female respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment in training, however further analysis demonstrates that trainees identifying as female experienced greater number of instances of sexual harassment, such that the majority of females reported experiencing denigrating jokes about one's gender and subtle sexual comments (74% and 65%, respectively). Female trainees had a higher affirmative response rate to every question and represented the entirety of respondents reporting uninvited sexual advances and experiencing denigrating comments about one's sexual orientation. Ten participants noted, via free text, settings in which these instances occurred; general surgery and surgical subspecialty rotations were noted most frequently.
Conclusions: Prior survey based studies have revealed widespread sexual harassment in medicine, particularly of women, and especially in surgical specialties. This study reveals that, although both male and female otolaryngology trainees experience sexual harassment in training, women are disproportionately affected by sexual harassment.