Table 2

Phrases identified in reference letters to general surgery based on gender of applicant^*

Rank	Female applicant			Male applicant

	Phrase	Frequency	Proportion of letter’s words, %	Phrase	Frequency	Proportion of letter’s words, %
1	Technical skills	44	1.61	Knowledge base	31	1.61

2	Junior resident	38	1.39	Technical skills	31	1.61

3	Knowledge base	38	1.39	Work ethic	31	1.61

4	Work ethic	38	1.39	Communication skills	21	1.09

5	Hard working	34	1.24	Junior resident	20	1.04

6	Above average	31	1.14	Cognitive skills	16	0.83

7	Communication skills	29	1.06	Patient care	15	0.78

8	Pleasure to work	23	0.84	Research projects	15	0.78

9	Patient care	21	0.77	Above average	13	0.68

10	Support of application	20	0.73	Problem solving	13	0.68

↵* The frequency is the number of times this phrase occurred in a combined document of all female or male applicant letters. The proportion of the letter’s words shows the percentage of the total words in the combined document of all female or male applicant letters that are the phrase words.