http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-cover-stories/women-in-veterinary-medicine.aspx
There is no doubt issues in almost all higher level profession when it comes to women. When you think of any profession that is higher ranked you know that it is a male dominated profession. If a women does try to get into a male dominated profession there will be plenty of obstacles to get around and males will do anything to discourage her to stick with that profession.
Prior to 1972, which was only 40 years ago women were not even allowed to get into any veterinary medicine programs, because they were thought to not be able to handle the work. This is obviously not true and in the past 40 years there has been vast changes. Women now hold 78% of the seats in veterinary science program seats today. For having been a completely male dominated field that women could not even apply and to now be at this is absolutely amazing. Even males in veterinary science are saying that women are no worse than the males are in the profession. Now they say that women are actually more likely to stay at a practice when having a family contrary to popular belief that women having families will ruin their professionalism. Women have definitely took charge in the veterinary profession.
Not all is great in veterinary medicine and fair like it should be, but it is leaps and bounds better than it use to be. The wage gap between male and female veterinarians still exists and is still very much a problem. Another issue is that not as many women are in large animal, or food animal veterinary practices. More and more women are starting to take over the large and food animal practices and are creating a difference in how women veterinarians are looked at.
This hits home with me since I aspire to become a veterinarian in large and food animal practice. I am going to be making a difference in the veterinary profession alongside many other women. Knowing this I am glad to see such a turn around for women in the work place. Things are most definitely not as fair as they should be, but at least a difference has been made. This difference is going to only get better and better as the years go on.
Women are definitely making a difference in the bad hand that society has dealt us, but we are fighting back and taking action making sure to have things fair. The veterinary field is not the only place that women are making a difference in their professions. There are many more women going through professional programs. What programs that you are interested in that women are making a new place for themselves, and which ones also have men agreeing that the women belong?
This was a very awesome issue to bring up. I honestly had no idea that men dominated in the veterinary fields. If I never read your post, I would've never known :). Growing up, I lived with various animals and went to the vet all the time with my mother. Now that I think about it, there was not one man on staff at that particular vet. The secretaries and all the doctors, which was just a few, were all women. And even now, I think there might be just one or two men working at that vet.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to think that men pretty much dominated in almost everything back in the day. Women populations in fields are growing, and I'm happy to hear that women are taking a stand in their rights because we deserve to do what we want: our dreams. I'm also glad to hear that you want to pursue a career in veterinary sciences because I don't have the guts to see animals suffer. I'll just leave that up to you ;). Thank you for introducing this topic to everyone on this blog, and I hope to read more of your work soon!
I really liked your positivity in your post—it can be hard to be hopeful when you start to see how bad things can be. I think it just goes to show that if enough people feel that something is important, and enough people care enough about themselves and others, and enough people are fed up with the system and enough people are willing to do something about it, enough people CAN and WILL change the system. I think that some women nowadays forget the importance of the freedom that they have, and forget that this was fought for, for years and is not something to treat lightly.
ReplyDeleteI like it when people get specific in their post and this was one of them. There are so many different branches of professions and I feel as if each profession has their own idea of what says and goes with women. It is awesome that we are starting to make a big difference in the field of animal care. It is important that we see the changes that are for the better and that we see the things that haven't changed and try to fix them. The gender wage gap is so huge that it is something that needs to be fixed from higher up and we need to see this and work for a change. It is not so much the CAN as it is the WILL. We need to have that will. This country revolves around men and it is difficult in their high position to give some of their power. We need to convince them and we need their help too. I only wish that fields like engineering could see the light.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher