Female Students Dominating Veterinary Schools
This is up slightly from 23% last year, but down from just over 30% in 1999: ten years before that, the gender balance of new students was approximately 50:50. Meanwhile, 53% of UK-practicing veterinary surgeons are female. This follows a similar trend in America and builds on past findings by the RCVS in 2006.
In 2006 the RCVS undertook a survey amongst its members (the full results of which are available here) which found that females were dominating the profession even four years ago – the RCVS called this the ‘feminisation’ of the profession, and within its study explored the possible effects of this on the profession.
“The issue of career breaks is a live one for the profession, and is linked to feminisation. Although some male vets are on a career break, mostly it is women who take such breaks, and mostly their reasons are related to having children and raising a family…Proportionally ten times as many women as men are on a career break, and the predicted length of the break is very variable. A ‘typical’ break appears to be 12 months, but the mean average is higher, at 26 months, as it is skewed by a small number of respondents anticipating very long breaks of several years. An understanding of career breaks is important for the profession, as there are clear implications in terms of planning future numbers, which in turn is related to training places in veterinary schools…Women are also more likely than men to work part time… and this also has implications for future planning and required numbers.”
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
