Influence of Gender and Racial Diversity on the Otolaryngology Residency Match

Objective: (1) Understand attitudes of otolaryngology residency applicants regarding gender and racial diversity within programs. (2) Examine how program diversity affects applicant decisions during the residency match. (3) Compare the importance of racial and ethnic program diversity among applicants. Study Design: Web-based survey distributed in February and March 2019. Setting: Tertiary care university setting. Subjects and Methods: An anonymous web-based survey was distributed to 418 applicants in the 2019 otolaryngology match. Respondents were queried about the importance of program diversity and its effects on the match process. Ratings were based on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being extremely important or significant effect). Results: The response rate was 35%; 53% of responders were male; and 59% were white, 25% Asian, 6% black, and 6% Hispanic/Latino. Applicants rated the importance of having female faculty and residents as 4.1 (SD = 1.1) and 4.2 (SD = 1.1), respectively. Applicants rated the importance of having diverse faculty and residents as 3.9 (SD = 1.1) and 4 (SD = 1.2). Overall, 7.6% of applicants canceled interviews due to a lack of female residents and 5.5% due to a lack of female faculty; furthermore, 5.5% of applicants canceled interviews due to a lack of diverse residents and 4.9% due to a lack of diverse faculty. Female and nonwhite applicants prioritized females and diversity within programs more so than male and white applicants. Conclusions: Although residency applicants felt that program diversity was important, this did not significantly affect decision making during the match process, likely due to the competitive nature of the match. Women and nonwhite applicants prioritized program diversity more than white male applicants.