Pioneer women in veterinary medicine, their history and where they studied.

Abstract

The women described in this paper were the early pioneers in veterinary medicine; they studied in some of the best veterinary colleges in the world at that time. They paved the way for other women who studied veterinary medicine in later years. According to Drum and Whitely,25 by 1936, there were only 30 female veterinarians in the United States; this was an era when admission to veterinary college for women was nearly impossible. In 1963, there were 277 female veterinarians in the United States, but by 1987 women made up 17% of the veterinary profession. The February 15, 2010 issue of the JAVMA reported that male enrollment in U.S. veterinary colleges decreased from 89% for the 1969-70 school year to 22.4% for 2008-09. During the same period female enrollment increased from 11.0% to 77.6%.