Becoming veterinarians, a relational account of the experiences of ten women

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of women who were becoming veterinarians during an era of female dominant student enrollment. Ten women in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) degree program at Ontario Veterinary College (O.V.C.), University of Guelph, between 1989-1997 participated in this qualitative study. Through life history interviews, the women expressed themes related to four social contexts: the family, adolescent school and work, undergraduate university, and professional school. The relational metaphor linking the contexts explored the role of empathy from self-objects in the developmental process. Themes in the family involved parental influence, mother-daughter career similarity, and early relationships with companion animals. Themes in the adolescent years involved gaining strength and competence academically and physically with animals, learning through encounters with practising veterinarians, and developing an image of veterinary medicine as ideal for women. During undergraduate university, the themes were managing developmental issues and transition, managing competition in science culture, and preparing to conform to the cultural and learning demands of the profession. Both unique and familiar gendered trends were evident in the professional college experience. Strengthening experiences occurred in the context of belonging to a community, mentoring relationships, and personal validation. Demotivating experiences related to passive learning, competitive peer relationships, lack of freedom to express competence, lack of voice, and cultural messages that were at odds with combining career and family. This research affirmed previous work that has argued that women prefer connected, relationally-oriented education (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986) and that science education is competitive and non rewarding (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997). This research failed to report a loss of voice during the adolescent years (Brown & Gilligan, 1992); however, loss of voice became increasingly apparent during undergraduate and professional education. Some reports of homophobia, gender discrimination and harassment underscore previous findings (Betz, 1994; Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987) that such experiences are part of women's career development. Veterinary medicine offers a unique example of a profession in which many talented women are moving. Nevertheless, the women in this study were still experiencing contradictions in integrating their worlds of work and family.Ed.D