In veterinary medicine, a field once dominated by men, females are not merely increasing in number -- they are also showing signs of becoming the majority gender.
The admissions statistics at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine reveal that the most recently accepted class is composed of 82 students, only 10 of whom are male. The gender ratio imbalance has similarly characterized the last four years of enrollment.
Claims of gender bias in the admissions process, though, are unwarranted, according to Rebecca Russo, director of admissions at the Cummings School.
Russo confirmed that the applicant pool reflects the same gender disproportion and said that the dramatic increase in female applicants in the last 15 years is the primary source of the demographic shift.
The influx of aspiring female veterinarians is not restricted to Tufts; out of the 28 veterinary schools in the country, 79 percent of students are female.
This is a drastic change from the composition of veterinary schools a few decades back. In the 1960s, 95 percent of veterinary students were male. By the 1980s, female applications to veterinary programs outnumbered male applications.
Although there are more male veterinarians practicing presently, the gender discrepancy may soon see a reversal as a surge of female students graduate from veterinary school in upcoming years.
Many different theories have been proposed by administrators and students alike regarding the phenomenon, including the low number of malpractice suits filed against those in the veterinary field.
Mark Fagan, a senior and veterinary school applicant, agreed that the reduced risk of occupational legal battles is enticing.
"[Doctors practicing human medicine] are kind of limited by insurance and malpractice suits. There are a lot of headaches to deal with," Fagan said.
He also suggested that veterinary medicine has a more feminine connotation to it than other sects of the medical field. Because of this, he faced some condescension from male friends when he told them of his plans to become a veterinarian.
"I got a lot of 'Aww ... that's too cute' from my guy friends," Fagan said.
Senior Nicole Cardona, president of the Pre-Vet Society at Tufts, estimated that of the group's 20-30 active participants, only around 30 percent are male.
"Females are naturally seen as 'more nurturing,'" Cardona said. She also said that men may be more attracted to the higher salaries that careers in human medicine provide.
According to the American Medical Association, a doctor's annual salary averages $200,000, while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual salary for a veterinarian is around $75,000.
Apart from possible explanations, the schism between genders appears to manifest itself at an early age.
"We see the same trend among middle schoolers that we talk to, students 10-13 years old," Russo said.
Some universities perceive this gender discrepancy to be a problem and are taking action to recruit more male students.
An article in The Boston Globe cited University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences as two such schools.
Many at Tufts, though, view the increase in female students as benign and without cause for concern.
Carol Baffi-Dugan, Tufts' program director for health professions advising, does not find anything wrong with the gender imbalance in the veterinary profession.
"For decades, and even in the early '80s when I began advising, women were discouraged from going into veterinary medicine. Since so many girls and women were led to believe that they could not do this, most did not. Now they can and they are. I certainly do not see it as a problem that many women are interested in veterinary medicine. I think it is terrific that they have this opportunity available to them now, and are pursuing it," Baffi-Dugan said in an e-mail.
Nahv Etedali, a senior who received early admission to the Cummings School as a sophomore, echoed this sentiment.
"Everyone has the same purpose or goal in mind. Everyone [studying veterinary medicine] wants to become a vet, so it shouldn't matter what ratio of men to women there is in the classroom. The process of learning is still the same," Etedali said.
Harry Bernheim, an associate professor of biology at Tufts, said that there is not a noticeable difference between genders in their motivation to pursue a degree in veterinary medicine.
"[Male and female responses] are nearly identical. Male or female, there's a strong history of interest in animal care. Vet schools make sure that students aren't doing it on a whim or impulse," he said.
Rather than being worried about the gender discrepancy in veterinary medicine, some individuals are more concerned with the under-representation of minorities in the field. Statistics provided by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges show that in 2006, only 9.7 percent of all the students enrolled in U.S. veterinary schools were minorities.
"[People should] confront that especially, as opposed to the gender discrepancy," Cardona said.
Baffi-Dugan agreed.
"Every profession benefits from a diverse workforce. The profession of veterinary medicine has very few minority practitioners and is working hard to try and address that problem. My own sense is that the gender gap is not nearly the concern that the racial and ethnic underrepresentation is, and that would be my personal view as well," she said.
Russo said that veterinary schools around the country notice this phenomenon.
"There's been some talk nationally about the issue. The shortage of minority individuals is a greater concern than the male-to-female ratio at this point. We need to figure out why minority students are not applying to this profession and if there's anything we can do to change that. That's the main concern for vet schools currently," she said.
Whether it is in regards to gender or race, Fagan thinks that a change in public opinion about the field will ultimately balance it out.
"The demographics in population don't necessarily need to be actively changed, but the overall conception of the profession by people in academia and people in general needs to be changed. I think if that happens, the change in demographics will naturally follow," he said.
