LAUSR

Background: The Queen Bee phenomenon describes the behavioural response that occurs when women achieve success in a male-dominated environment, and in this position of authority, treat their female subordinates more critically. This behavioural response has been demonstrated in fields such as business, aca-demia, the military, and police force. The goal of this study was to determine whether the Queen Bee phenomenon occurs simi-larly in surgical specialties within medicine. We hypothesized that female surgeons, fellows, and senior surgical residents would be more critical in their assessment of junior female residents than of their male counterparts. Methods: A scenario-based survey was distributed to all Canadian surgical programs, guised as a survey-based study of patterns of interaction among surgical trainees and staff surgeons. Scenario questions were designed to assess either female or male learners. Respondents’ average Likert score for female-based and male-based questions were calculated. The differences in scores were analyzed. Subgroup analyses were performed based on age, seniority, and surgical specialty. Results: We collected 716 survey responses, with 387 respondents identifying as male (54%) and 321 identifying as female (45%); the remaining 8 respondents did not report gender. This included 385 staff surgeons (54%), 66 fellows (9%), and 263 residents (37%); the remaining 2 respondents did not identify their group. The mean Likert scores for female respond ents assessing female learners was significantly lower than when male learners were assessed ( p = 0.008). During subgroup analysis, resident females scored female learners significantly less favourably than the staff and fellow groups ( p = 0.036). Some subspecialties demonstrated significant scoring differences. Female orthopedic surgeons scored female learners more harshly than male learners ( p = 0.049). Conclusion: The Queen Bee phenomenon was shown