published on
03/12/2025
written by
Neil Vezeau
Neil is a veterinarian with experience in food safety at the wildlife-human interface in the United States of America. His scholarly work focuses on antimicrobial resistance, One Health, veterinary education, and gender equity. Neil also works with other veterinary initiatives through involvement in the American Veterinary Medical Association and the National Association of Federal Veterinarians.
Sonia Fèvre
Sonia Fèvre is a strategic consultant who works with partners to build participatory and inclusive collaboration and leadership. Using systems approaches and futures thinking, Sonia facilitates teams and projects to work strategically across disciplines and knowledge areas. Sonia holds an MA in Social Anthropology and an MSc in Environmental Technology. In her creative time, Sonia is exploring ways to capture the collective imagination around aspirational futures.
Veterinary medicine is a profession of increasing prominence as ownership of companion animals, meat consumption, and emerging zoonotic diseases become more common worldwide. Among other factors, shifting dynamics within the market for veterinary services help shape workforce demographics. Today, in many parts of the world, veterinary medicine is one of the most rapidly feminising professions. Just as women now outnumber men in the profession in dozens of countries, the proportion of students who are women is also increasing rapidly [1,2].
Demographic data on the comparatively small animal healthcare sector is sparse when compared to many human health professions, and within the sector demographic information is easier to find for veterinarians than for other animal care professions (e.g. veterinary nurses, animal health technicians, community animal health workers [CAHWs]). This is due to the relative cohesiveness of the veterinary profession and its prominence within many animal health infrastructures. This is especially true in high-income settings, where demographic data on the veterinary profession is more widely available. By assembling data from a variety of sources, one can begin to build a cohesive picture of women’s growing presence in veterinary medicine. Across much of North America and Western, Central and Northern Europe, women have comprised the majority of the profession for at least a decade. Currently, women make up a majority of veterinarians in 30 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Australasia [3]. This proportion of women reaches as high as 93% in the case of Finland. Additionally, the proportion of women in the sector is steadily increasing in almost all countries for which such data is available.
Among jurisdictions with readily available data, the Democratic Republic of the Congo appears to have the lowest proportion of women veterinarians, at approximately 10% [3]. Figures for other countries in the Global South are scarce. Women are also still in the minority in some high-income countries. These include some Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Hungary, and some East Asian countries, such as Japan and the Republic of Korea [4].
There is less clarity on the global demographics of veterinary paraprofessionals (VPP), including veterinary nurses, animal health technicians and, sometimes, CAHWs. However, VPPs far outnumber veterinarians, so further exploration of the former is merited.
In the most feminised regions, some veterinary education establishments (VEE) have admission practices intended to bring more men into the profession. For example, veterinary medicine is the most gender-imbalanced field of study in Norway [5], where legal battles have erupted over admissions policies that advantage men by adding ‘points’ to their applications [6]; veterinary school admissions have become the chief example in Norway of wider efforts to redress academic attainment and reduce gender gaps for men in postsecondary science courses [7]. Similarly, in the United States of America, men appear to be accepted into VEEs at higher rates [8]. This contrasts with countries such as Germany and Finland, where women have higher admission rates to VEEs despite their substantial majorities [9,10]. Conversely, women’s entry into the profession is much more recent in some jurisdictions, such as Saudi Arabia, where women only started to be accepted into VEEs in 2018 [11]. Among countries with VEEs, Afghanistan may now be the only country where women are barred from these training pipelines [12].
Looking specifically at student populations allows us to identify probable trends in the future demographics of the profession. In European countries with the most feminised veterinary trainee pools, the proportional growth of these pools typically levels off at approximately 85–95%. This sigmoidal pattern of growth can be seen in Figures 1 and 2, and demonstrates a plausible limit for the proportional growth of women in the profession. However, these patterns of demographic change vary considerably by country.
A greater number of animal health associations and authorities are now focusing on demography through the lens of gender. Our knowledge of gendered demography can also be expanded through information from archived census data and registries of veterinarians.
Figure 1. Average percentage of women among veterinary professionals by WOAH region [3]*Data is from three countries or fewer.
Note: Regional averages did not weight each country by the number of veterinarians in each. This bar chart was created using a GitHub data set, the sources of which were disaggregated by both sex and gender.
Figure 2. Average percentage of women among veterinary students by WOAH region [3]*Data is from three countries or fewer.
Note: Regional averages did not weight each country by the number of veterinarians in each. This bar chart was created using a GitHub data set, the sources of which were disaggregated by both sex and gender.
Given the lack of gender parity in leadership roles within the veterinary sector, it has been informative to speak with senior female veterinarians about their career journeys and enabling factors for success. Qualitative data analysis by theme was undertaken using 14 transcripts from interviews** conducted by WOAH’s Gender Task Force in 2023 with senior female veterinarians, nine of whom were Delegates to WOAH.
One of the most senior roles for public sector veterinarians is Chief Veterinary Officer, which typically correlates with being a WOAH Delegate. In 2023, of 182 WOAH Members, 38 Delegates were women (21%).
Most of the interviewees described their leadership style and impact as being more open and inclusive than their predecessors. They described themselves as ‘servant leader[s]’, ‘open-minded’, ‘collaborative’, and even as reformers of ‘internal culture’. Highlighted challenges include the transition from technical expert to leader, personal conflicts between professional and family responsibilities, and the feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’. Mentors and senior colleagues, both male and female, were almost always instrumental in encouraging these emerging leaders to apply to senior positions.
Interviewees listed multiple suggestions for how organisations such as WOAH could help support more diverse and gender-inclusive leadership pathways in Veterinary Services. These included being proactive, raising awareness around gender inclusion and applying foresight to better understand the implications of the profession’s feminisation; this might include whether staff would like to shape new norms for what work looks like in a feminised workplace (e.g. working hours, benefits, management styles, etc.). All interviewees recommended that WOAH foster opportunities for mentorship [13], for a community of practice, and/or for management and leadership training for women in Veterinary Services. They not only highlighted that places for women to support each other and learn are valuable, but that collaboration and support for women’s leadership by men is also essential; they stressed that male colleagues can, and do, champion gender inclusion effectively by supporting female colleagues with leadership potential to gain experience, access training and apply for more senior positions.
It is important that all countries understand quantitative demographic trends in the veterinary profession at the national level and use foresight [14] to consider their implications. On this basis, policies and systems can be developed to support the workforce in providing the full spectrum of veterinary services effectively.
Such policies can also ensure that organisations and Veterinary Services foster more inclusive career pathways by influencing resource allocation, human resources priorities and continuing professional development around leadership training, mentoring and communities of practice for women.
**Some of the interviews are available online on the websites of WOAH’s Regional Representations. Others have not been published as some interviewees wanted to remain anonymous. The transcripts include interviewees from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.
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[2] Buchy M. The importance of a gender strategy for WOAH. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2025. Available at: https://theanimalecho.woah.org/en/gender/ (in press).
[3] Vezeau N. Global-Vet-Med-Gender (GNU general public license). San Francisco (United States of America): GitHub Repository; 2025. Available at: https://github.com/nvezeau/Global-Vet-Med-Gender/tree/main (accessed on 31 January 2025).
[4] International Labour Organization (ILO). A Quantum Leap for Gender Equality: For a Better Future of Work For All. Geneva (Switzerland): ILO; 2019. 146 p. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_674831.pdf (accessed on 14 February 2025).
[5] Olsen JW, Lie T. Her vil nesten ingen menn studere. Oslo (Norway): Khrono; 2024. Available at: https://www.khrono.no/her-vil-nesten-ingen-menn-studere/683740 (accessed on 3 December 2024).
[6] Njåstad M. Får ikke lov til å kvotere menn inn på veterinær. Oslo (Norway): Khrono; 2024. Available at: https://www.khrono.no/kvotering-opptak-guttekvotering/far-ikke-lov-til-a-kvotere-menn-inn-pa-veterinaer/141480 (accessed on 3 December 2024).
[7] Upton B. Norway bids to attract men to female-dominated university courses. Times Higher Education; 2022. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/norway-bids-attract-men-female-dominated-university-courses (accessed on 14 February 2025).
[8] American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). Annual Data Report: 2022-2023. Washington, D.C. (United States of America): AAVMC; 2024. 68 p. Available at: https://www.aavmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-AAVMC-Annual-Data-Report-September23.pdf (accessed on 3 December 2024).
[9] University of Helsinki. Helsingin yliopistoon hakeneet ja hyväksytyt kevään 2024 yhteishaussa. Helsinki (Finland): University of Helsinki; 2024. Available at: https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2024-09/Yhteishaussa%20kandiohjelmiin%20hakeneet%2C%20hyv%C3%A4ksytyt%20ja%20opiskelupaikan%20vastaanottaneet%20hakukohteittain%20ja%20tiedekunnittain%206.9.2024.pdf (accessed on 3 December 2024).
[10] Henning J, Held J, Keimer H. Tierärzte Atlas Deutschland 2024. Wörlitz (Germany): Dessauer Zukunftskreis; 2024. 90 p. Available at: https://www.tieraerzteatlas.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Tieraerzte_Atlas_online_2024_10_09-komplett.pdf (accessed on 3 December 2024).
[11] ع. الغزال, “50 طالبة في الطب البيطري لأول مرة,” الوطن. Al-Watan; 2025. Available at: https://wtn.sa/a/368667 (accessed on 22 February 2025).
[12] Greenfield C, Yunus Yawar M. Taliban-led Afghan administration suspends women from universities. Reuters; 2025. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-led-afghan-administration-says-female-students-suspended-universities-2022-12-20/ (accessed on 22 February 2025).
[13] De Balogh K, Staerk K. Untitled. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2025. Available at: https://theanimalecho.woah.org/en/gender/ (in press).
[14] Prado T. Untitled. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2025. Available at: https://theanimalecho.woah.org/en/gender/ (in press).
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