Female Veterinarians
Hi friends,
I said after we discussed the impact of children on careers in an earlier post, that I would find out more about how women have made progress as veterinarian doctors. I am impressed because it's so hard to get into vet school compared with med school; I've advised some pre-vet students (mostly women, interestingly) and I always tell them they're choosing the hard road. I found an article by Patricia Montemurri, saying that female vets outnumbered male nationally and in Rhode Island. You can read it here.
First she cites Dr. Segal, who went to vet school at Michigan State in the 1930's. One of seven women in her class, she was told she didn't belong and should "go back to the kitchen." Now she is glad to see 259 of the 413 vets in Rhode Island are women. Montemurri goes on to say, "Female veterinarians in the U.S. now outnumber males. The numbers flip-flopped in 2009, according to figures released in March by the American Veterinary Medical Association, which reported that women lead men, 44,802 to 43,196, in the field." she also tells us that Beth Leininger became the first female president of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1996. That is a good sign of the respect with which women are treated in the field.
You might think women would be limited to small animal practices, but today women participate in all aspects of the veterinarian practice. Montemurri says, "It once was believed that women couldn't handle large animals, such as cows and horses, so a vet needed to be a brawny fullback type. But compared with a 1,700-pound horse, the size difference between a 130-pound woman and a 200-pound man doesn't amount to much."
The family-oriented schedule was noted in our earlier post. Here is what Montemurri says,"Although the training is rigorous, the work settings for veterinarians can follow a family-friendly routine. A small animal clinic is open during the day, has no late or emergency hours and lends itself to flexibility for part-time work."
I looked for examples of flexible schedules and found one in the article that I almost didn't believe: "Dr. Cassandra Pohl, 40, of Canton, Mich., works as a vet at Dearborn Family Pet Care. Pohl entered the field because she loves animals, but relishes the flexibility it gives her. She works three days a week, plus two Saturdays a month." This flexibility of Pohl's schedule sounds terrific to me; I've never had that much time to spend with my family, even when my kids were young.
What do you think:
A. Being a vet today sounds like it's more ideal for women than what I do.
B. I would have hated vet school, but I wish my schedule could be that flexible.
C. I never would have chosen this career and think Pohl is not really working full time, so she's not comparable to my career.
I was watching "America's Got Talent" the other night after I got home and the judges said something like that about gettting more confidence to one of the contestants. So now, how do we say to those smart women in science, who have talent but feel like fakes who could be exposed as ignorant at any moment, that they should fake it until they make it, and that seeming confident will breed confidence? Seems like a great thing to do if we could figure out how!
cheers,
Laura
I had a very good female mentor once tell me that you just have "Fake it til you make it!". So sounding confident will work just fine Laura!
So maybe again, confidence training is one of those life skills workshops we women in science need? I am not sure I could learn to BE confident when all the men say different, but I probably could learn to SOUND confident.
cheers,
Laura
I think it can work out really well in academe in institutions that aid in achieving flexibility in working/teaching hours. It's just hard to stand up and say this is the way things will be with such intention and confidence that no one questions you:) Excellent skill to have in all aspects of life when it comes down to it.
Hi Helen,
Yes, teens do need a lot of support and a flex schedule might be good when kids are teens. I sometimes had to juggle and when my son was in junior high school and I had late labs, I worried about him getting home safely from school. But with some help from my friends, some of whom admittedly had flexible schedules, it worked out. I guess I have a tendency to think if it worked for me, it should work for all. Of course, that's not realistic! Sorry,
Laura
I disagree that you would want such a schedule only when the children are small. If anything teens require even more (or at least as much as toddlers) of your time and energy. And for those of us who wait until we're in our 30s/40s to have children, it's also tiring! Having a flexible "option" available in a chosen career path would be wonderful. Not all vets work a flex schedule for example. The same goes for pharmacists. There are plenty of them who only take weekend shifts at overtime pay so they can stay home during the week, and just as many who work regular schedules or ungodly hospital hours too.
I think one key is that these types of professions involve life in some way. You don't want a tired/worn down pharmacist or surgeon or vet working with your pet. So we all "agree" that these folks should have more lesiure time to recoup. There is no such acknowledgement for doing better science. And we all know that the best science gets done when we have time to actually think about the big picture now and again.
Hi friends,
I have some sympathy with all of your positions. I think this kind of flex time is best if reserved for early childhood periods and not if maintained permanently, again harking back to the FBP idea that full time respect is based on a full time career. But I do think along with willing and Small Science Woman that more flexibility during the approximately 5-7 years when a woman has young kids is far beyond what women in molecular biology can expect to get, while evidently it's readily available to veterinarians.
cheers,
Laura
C Nothing against vets, I think they're really smart, but it's not for me. But that woman given in the example is NOT working full time on an ongoing basis, and to me that is less of a career and more of a utility, just bringing home money. Sorry to speak bluntly, but I feel strongly that female careers can be and should be equivalent to men's, not some kind of marked down version. If she's just going to do that for a few years while her kids are very small, it makes better sense to me and I'd be more interested in it as a model. FBP
B I am a molecular person, not an animal person, but I really wish my schedule could be like that vets that you cite above. Three days and two Saturdays a month sounds like heaven.
A It seems that whenever I think I have a family-friendly schedule, the adminitration puts me on a committee that meets from 5-7 on Tues and Thurs. I really don't see this kind of flexibility
