Women are Underrepresented in Global Veterinary Medicine Leadership Positions Despite Overrepresentation in the Field

A new study has found that despite their majority share of students and professionals in the veterinary medicine field, women are underrepresented in the field’s leadership positions.

For their study into veterinary medicine’s gender representation, the research team analyzed data from 720 veterinary schools in 118 countries. The results found that women represented 90 percent of veterinary students, but only 34.6 percent of those in leadership positions. The representation was worse for top-level leaders, such as deans, with women only accounting for 25.5 percent of universities’ top executives.

When broken down by location, women’s representation in veterinary leadership was greater than men’s in Scandinavian countries, Russia, and Australia. Women’s representation was lower in Mexico as well as Central American and South Asian countries. In the United States, women have achieved gender parity in veterinary leadership positions with men and women each representing 50 percent. The vast majority of all countries analyzed did not have an equal representation.

The research team writes that their study “identifies potential socioeconomic issues closely connected to gender equity in these spaces.” They believe “future work is needed to assess gender representation over different phases of veterinary career tracks, including in student populations. Analysis of gendered trends over time will also help to establish trends and evaluate progress in gender equity.”