Why aren’t there more women in leadership roles in veterinary medicine?

I traveled to Las Vegas this past weekend to speak at the Women’s Veterinary Summit and was struck by a disappointing realization. Despite a gender gap characterized by a veterinary workforce of approximately 60% women, the number of men in veterinary leadership roles appears to consistently outweigh that of women.

When I was in the speaker ready room at Western Veterinary Conference preparing for my presentations, there was an obvious majority of men in the room, compared to women. I scrolled the more than 400 speakers listed on the conference website to gauge if my observation was accurate and indeed two-thirds of the speakers listed were men.

I have also noted a similar gender imbalance among veterinary academic leadership positions. For example, there are 5 veterinary schools in Canada and only 1 school (Université de Montréal Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) has a female dean. Likewise, the first woman appointed as dean of a College of Veterinary Medicine in the United States was in 1998 and 20 years later many veterinary schools, including the University of Missouri in 2018, are just appointing their first female dean. This tendency to men holding leadership roles at veterinary schools persists despite female students comprising 80% of veterinary students in 2016.

The disparity between men and women in leadership roles is not pervasive throughout the industry, however. In the province where I currently live and hold a veterinary license, the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association Council Members are 64% female, which more closely represents the current membership composed of 57% female veterinarians. Likewise, VetsNow (UK’s largest provider of small animal emergency care) has a predominantly female leadership team and Zoetis (global animal health company) has women in 4 of its 9 executive positions.

Unfortunately, most animal pharmaceutical companies retain predominantly male chief executives. An article published in 2016 highlighted the lack of women in leadership roles within the animal health industry. The authors cited that only 15% of the top executives at the 10 largest veterinary drug manufacturers were female and none of the major animal health companies had a female chief executive. Surprisingly, these paltry numbers are still higher than the norm for corporations overall, with less than 5% of chief executive positions in the UK, USA, and Europe held by females.

So, while the disparity in women versus men in leadership roles is not unique to veterinary medicine, given that a higher percentage of women are in the veterinary industry compared to men, why are there not more women in these roles? Is it that women are not applying for these positions or do not feel that they are qualified? Are women choosing to pursue less-demanding roles in lieu of prioritizing time with family? Or are women indeed applying for these positions but are being turned down in place of men who are considered more qualified?

Research suggests that women are less likely to apply for a position if they do not meet all the listed job qualifications, whereas men are more likely to apply even if they only meet two-thirds of the listed qualifications. So, it is plausible that many female veterinarians resist applying for leadership roles due to a fear of not being competent enough. Along those lines, women in corporate workplaces also tend to exhibit perfectionism and self-criticism more often then men, which might reduce their tendency to apply for leadership roles.

Sheryl Sandberg wrote about the lack of women in chief executive roles in her book Lean In, which encourages women to “sit at the table” and engage in other behaviors such as persuading partners to share parenting duties. Sandberg also acknowledged in her follow-up book Plan B, that without support in the form of caregivers or dedicated spouses, it is nearly impossible for a woman to hold a leadership position and successfully raise children.

I recently listened to a podcast from Sincerely, X called “Equality Executive” that featured a female chief executive who spoke frankly about the reasons why corporate America has so few female executives. She cites many reasons for this including biases about women being able to “handle” executive roles (especially if they are parenting children) and women not applying for jobs for fear they will not succeed in them. However, she also shares evidence demonstrating that companies with women in executive roles have higher profit margins!

So, is the disparity because companies are not making more of an effort to hire women in executive roles or is it simply because women are choosing not to apply? Are women concerned about balancing family and the stressors of a demanding leadership role? Or do women question their ability to thrive in these roles because of perfectionistic pressures and self-criticism?

I don’t think we know the answers to these questions, but perhaps having an awareness of this gender imbalance and the potential reasons might urge companies and women to change. Kudos to the companies who have already made steps in this direction and to the many incredible women I know who hold leadership positions and have excelled in their roles. Here’s hoping that in my lifetime we get to the point of equality or maybe even similar proportions of men and women in leadership positions as in the veterinary industry.