The number of women in the veterinary sector is growing, but how inclusive is the profession globally?

In 2023, WOAH commissioned a gender study as part of the Professionalisation of (male and female) Veterinary Paraprofessionals (P3V) project in Senegal and Togo. The study set out to uncover the unique challenges women face in the animal health sector and foster an environment that promotes gender equality and equity in the Veterinary Services. This initiative aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, aiming to boost veterinary performance and enhance animal health care worldwide [1,2,13].

In addition to a comprehensive literature review, interviews were conducted online and on site in Togo; participants included livestock ministries, veterinary professionals, students, teachers and livestock farmers.

Online surveys targeting the same groups in both countries added depth to the qualitative analysis, revealing key insights into women’s access to training and their professional integration within the Veterinary Services.

Gender-friendly environments for veterinary professionals

The P3V study highlighted the scant research and information available on gender in Africa’s animal health sector. However, in recent years, Senegal [3,4,5] and Togo [6,7] have made strides in creating more supportive political and institutional environments for women in the field. As one female veterinary para-professional (VPP) in Senegal put it: ‘Gender equity and equality in the labour sector is an issue that has evolved a great deal in Senegal, and across all industries.’ A training supervisor in Togo added, ‘In the past, women weren’t valued. Now there’s light. Women are becoming emancipated’.

Nevertheless, despite the growing number of women working in Veterinary Services in recent years, they are still very much in the minority among professionals and students in the sector [8,9]. This is partly due to specific social and cultural barriers.

Barriers to foundational training

Social norms, patterns and expectations heavily influence girls’ career choices, often steering them towards literary professions rather than practical, more lucrative careers. Careers in livestock breeding and animal health are typically associated with men, and information on those professions is thin on the ground in secondary schools and the wider community. This is reflected in the lower representation of girls in the scientific streams in secondary education in Senegal and Togo. When girls do enter secondary education, they are more likely to choose intellectual fields rather than technical ones.

On a positive note, the admissions systems of the institutions studied are generally non-discriminatory. Most partner institutions have neutral competitive entrance exams and application forms, which ensure that applicants, male or female, remain anonymous.

Nonetheless, on-site conditions still fail to address the specific needs of women. Facilities are generally poorly adapted for female students, with boarding arrangements often mixed, non-segregated or inadequate sanitary facilities, a non-existent or unsuitable infirmary, inadequate access to period products for menstruating women and to contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Pregnancy policies in institutions are punitive, putting pregnant students at risk of dropping out, and official gender policies remain scarce.

Gender gaps in veterinary education systems

Face-to-face interviews with students, teachers and placement supervisors revealed that the placement sites for paraprofessional students are run almost exclusively by men, despite the presence of female farmers nearby. Some placement supervisors in Togo even informally refuse to accept female students or assign them household chores on top of their technical tasks. To this point, one student at the Tové National Agricultural Training Institute (INFA) shared, ‘My placement supervisor didn’t want girls at first, but the following year, he specifically asked for one’. Another student from the same institute explained, ‘They don’t think girls can do the same work’.

Furthermore, gender issues have so far been relatively absent in training courses and curricula and teaching approaches. For instance, the specific aspects of interacting with women breeders have been all but overlooked, and the issue of zoonoses that put pregnant women at risk has been brushed over despite the real risks faced by female practitioners and breeders.

The lack of women in leadership roles and on teaching staffs only compounds the problem. Reasons for this underrepresentation include stereotypes about women’s supposed lack of motivation to teach, their lower visibility in the sector, less confidence in public speaking and limited support from peers. The same gender gap is seen in the field, with women rarely invited as experts or speakers at animal health workshops.

Gendered career paths and barriers to employment

Male and female students differ in their career aspirations. Women tend to seek employment in the public sector and in urban areas, due to constraints specific to their gender, such as safety and less restrictive working conditions that better align with family life. Women are also less likely to pursue leadership roles, given their already heavy domestic burden.

Stereotypes about women’s supposed lack of physical strength and fear of animals also remain prevalent in veterinary practice, originating from both women and men. One VPP student from Senegal noted, ‘We need to change the way people think about women through a study […] on the challenges women face in the professional world.’ However, these perceptions vary widely depending on the age and the geographical and cultural background of the interviewees.

While setting up a practice is challenging for both men and women (for example, low or non-existent start-up bonuses), women face additional hurdles. For instance, securing a loan is more difficult due to lack of collateral and banks are reluctant to lend due to potential maternity leave. Women may also receive less encouragement from peers. Furthermore, women face exclusion in certain geographical and cultural settings, which are more traditional, and in relation to certain tasks; for example, in some areas in Togo, women are not allowed to touch butcher’s or slaughterhouse meat due to menstruation. ‘During a vaccination campaign, a farm owner told me – without offering any explanation – that a woman couldn’t enter the pen,’ recalls a student on placement at Senegal’s National Training Centre for Livestock and Animal Industry Technicians.

Beyond professional challenges, women find themselves having to reconcile family life with their professional aspirations; a struggle that often leads to mental exhaustion and a lack of support from their spouses.

These factors limit women’s career growth, not to mention their meagre representation on the boards of statutory bodies and their lack of visibility, which make it difficult to address these issues.

Health and safety concerns at all levels

Other professional constraints for women in the veterinary field are safety and travel. Women are generally encouraged (and are themselves more inclined) to take on less physically demanding tasks such as selling medicine, which are perceived as safer and avoid them having to travel to remote areas for work. However, these choices limit women’s exposure to practical work in the field, restricting their scope of skills in the long term and their ability to progress in line with their qualifications. Women are also exposed to additional health risks, which are insufficiently taken into account, such as zoonoses that put pregnant women at risk or lack of appropriate social protection.