**2. Methods and materials**

A total of 102,800 candidate publications were identified during a comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Google Scholar™, and EBSCOHost. Search terms included various combinations of "gender inequality," "gender inequity," "bias," "surgery," and "discrimination." Candidate publications were prioritized based on the presence of scientific methodology (Tier 1), followed by systematic reviews (Tier 2), professional society recommendations (Tier 3), and other studies (Tier 4, commentaries, chapters, nonscientific publications). An additional search of the resultant reference lists yielded 45 potentially relevant articles. Within the larger subset of candidate publications, 113 studies were deemed suitable for the development of this chapter's content.

*Surgical Education: Focus on Gender Equality in Academic Surgery and Related Areas DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103853*
