In 2009, female veterinarians began outnumbering their male counterparts. Food animal medicine continues to be male-dominated but female numbers are on the rise. In 2006, food animal-predominant veterinarians in private practice were 17 percent female. That number has grown to 19 percent as of 2011, according to American Veterinary Medical Association market research statistics. It’s a trend that many in the field expect to continue. “We have been seeing a shift toward mostly female students in the past several years from when we began receiving preceptors eight years ago in our practice’s mentoring program,” says Dr. Angela Daniels. “I think that the current male predominance in food animal medicine is coming from established practitioners because, certainly, the number of people entering into food animal practice appears to be heavily dominated by women.”
A veterinarian with more than 10 years of experience in dairy production medicine, Daniels and her husband, Dr. C Scanlon Daniels, established Circle H Headquarters, LLC in 2004.
Why the shift in numbers
The growth of females entering into large animal medicine could be attributed to a number of factors.
“The influx of women into the profession has been self-perpetuating,” says Texas A&M University veterinarian Dr. Meredyth Jones. “Women entered the profession, other women saw that and were mentored by those women. It has exploded from there and now the profession doesn’t look like it did even 10 years ago when I graduated from veterinary school.”
Florida dairy veterinarian Dr. Kathy Swift thinks that women on the farm are helping to encourage female veterinary careers, too.
“More women are involved on the farms now, whether they’re running the farms themselves or they’re an equal partner with male family members,” she says. “I think that has had more impact than anything. There’s less of a stigma now with female vets coming out to the farm.”
A third factor may be that producers are recognizing some of the advantages female veterinarians may have over male colleagues. A common belief among dairy producers is that females are more nurturing and therefore better equipped to care for calves and sick animals. But this nurturing nature goes beyond health.
“I’m more sensitive to animal welfare issues on dairies,” Daniels says. “I think women are more empathetic and thus may be better to recognize welfare issues that need to be corrected on farms and then work with the producer on fixing them.”
Another area Daniels pointed out is that her smaller frame and arms allows her to more easily position a calf correctly when a cow is calving. If she then needs muscle power to help pull a calf, she can usually enlist the help of someone larger or stronger on the dairy.
The changing role of veterinarians
Whether male or female, young people pursuing veterinary training have plenty of options in today’s industry.
Daniels described two models of a large animal veterinarian career.
The first is what she described as “traditional,” where the veterinarian provides care on an individual basis. The hours are more demanding and more emphasis is placed on emergency work at the farm.
She recommends that young people need to build their skills in this area before moving onto the other model, which is for practices serving larger operations. In this career field, the veterinarian is a resource who generally has regularly scheduled visits in addition to emergency work the farm is not able to manage.
This career demands the high level of skills necessary by the traditional veterinarian but also the ability to be a good teacher and trainer of others in areas such as vaccination and treatment protocols and routine calving procedures.
“The work schedule isn’t going to be any less demanding – but it might allow for greater flexibility,” Daniels says.
Another option for students, particularly those with special interests, is to go into research work at a university or government. Dr. Melissa Ackerman is completing her first year of residency at Washington State University in large animal internal medicine.
“Because these types of jobs are less dependent on the farm economy, it may be easier for students to start a career in research,” she says. Her current work is focusing on respiratory disease in bighorn sheep. She says she’s particularly interested in research where diseases are spread between wildlife and domestic animals.
Challenges for female veterinarians
Ackerman says she’s faced very little adversity as a female veterinarian in her career – but she knows it’s been a challenge for some of her colleagues.
Swift and Daniels have both experienced pushback from male dairy producers but it was toward the beginning of their careers. Now, they say, there are very few instances where their gender is a problem.
Daniels says the fear or worry of how producers will treat female veterinarians is often much worse than the actual outcome.
Jones says the top two concerns she hears from women looking to enter food animal practice is being treated differently as a female and the quality of life, particularly from those who want to have children.
“I’m able to relay to them my own positive experiences of feeling largely accepted by producers,” she says. “I tell them to seek out mentor relationships where a good life balance is modeled, which will allow them to work in the field they love while being fulfilled at home.”
Swift and Daniels, also mothers, say that most of their clients are supportive and respectful of their personal lives. All the women agreed that the biggest challenge facing aspiring female veterinarians is gender-neutral: the increasing costs of tuition and the declining availability of jobs.
“We don’t want to discourage anyone from entering the field – but it’s important for students to be educated about tuition costs and salary trends so they understand what they can expect to make,” Daniels says.
Swift believes the veterinary industry has done a good job in recent years of educating students about that issue, as well as providing them with the additional skills they need to succeed.
“People skills and business skills are becoming just as important as veterinary skills and I think the profession is doing a good job of preparing students for that,” she says.
In addition to gaining a variety of skills, it’s important for female veterinary students to be persistent, says Ackerman. “When I told people I’d like to go into wildlife medicine, they told me, ‘That’s really competitive.’ Well so is getting into vet school. And so is getting an internship. But if it’s what you want to do, you need to work for it.”
Dairy producers can help encourage the success of large animal veterinarians by identifying the right people to begin with.
“I don’t think it’s in our best interest to be encouraging small animal vet students to switch to food animal medicine, although there are students who have no prior experience with livestock and end up loving it,” Swift says. “But I think we also need to be finding the farm kids with a passion for science and helping them to pursue this career.” PD
