Women are changing the face of veterinary medicine
By Stuart Turner, DVM

It's been 91 years since the first woman earned a veterinary medical degree. Today over 65 percent of veterinary school students are women. The road in-between however has been lengthy and complex as women have fought their way to recognition in what has mostly been a male-dominated profession.

Remarkably, the rise in women graduates has been relatively recent. Only about 9 percent of veterinarians were female in 1980. Today about 30 percent of the approximately 59,000 veterinarians in the United States are female.

Shifts in our culture, expectations, and more importantly a better understanding and acceptance of women as professionals has played an important role. What has also changed is the focus on the type of practice veterinarians are engaged in. The days of a James Harriot styled mixed animal practitioner treating horses, livestock as well as dogs and cats is quickly eroding. A strong majority (about 72 percent) of veterinarians today treat only companion animals (dogs and cats), while 20 percent work mostly with large animals, with mixed animal practitioners (once the predominant type) trailing at only 8 percent.

Another reported factor has been the lagging growth in salaries of veterinarians compared to other similar professions. Many in the profession have expressed the notion that the percentage growth of women applicants is the result of a concomitant decline in applications by men who are less likely to pursue a career that involves many years of formal training, long work hours, combined with salaries that simply aren't competitive with other comparable professions. However women still earn less than their male counterparts. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the starting salary (mean) for men is $34,145 and $33,079 for women.

A greater number of veterinarians are working part-time, mostly due to women who take time away from their practice lives to raise children. This may also explain a greater motivation to choose the profession by women over men who have less of a concern in being the sole wage earner and raise a family on a veterinarian's salary.

Leadership positions recently reached a milestone as Dr. Mary Beth Leininger became the first women president of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1996. And, the Association of Women Veterinarians (AWV) celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1997 (for more information you may contact Dr. Chris Stone Payne, Secretary, 32205 Allison Drive, Union City, CA 94587).

Indeed veterinary medicine requires a clinician to exhibit dedication, intelligence, skill and compassion that are certainly characteristics of either gender. What we are experiencing is finally equality in the ability of both men and women to share their altruistic capacity by helping animals and their owners.

Grace Lee interviews Drs. Joy Jackman and Sally Borges who own and operate the Acorn Animal Clinic in Davis, California.