I used to consider myself a bit of an anti-feminist – but before the majority of the profession tear strips off me, let me explain…
There are a number of very strongly opinionated feminists around – on your Facebook feed, in the news and also friends or colleagues – you know the type; those who rant on and on about how a builder whistled at them when out running or how it’s disgusting women can’t walk home alone at night without fearing some sort of assault.
Don’t get me wrong, these are issues that shouldn’t be ignored – but by the time I’ve read the 17th Facebook essay about an objectifying song lyric, it starts to get a bit boring.
Keyboard warriors
In my opinion, these sort of things need to be considered sensibly.
Yes, it’s horrible we live in a world where a female is less safe than a male at night in a city, but what are you going to do about it?
Moaning on Facebook isn’t going to save your life. Swallowing your pride and spending a couple of quid on a taxi, instead of walking, might.
I hated being associated with these hardcore, self-proclaimed feminists, because I think those who aren’t campaigning for equality – but are just man haters – give the rest of the female population a bad name.
The ‘real’ working world
I also used to be naive to things like the gender pay gap, because it didn’t affect me at the time. However, now I’m about to enter the “real” working world, in a predominantly female profession, a recent headline caught my eye.
An article in The Guardian regarding the gender pay gap of university graduates stated: “Women who studied veterinary science experienced the widest gap, earning about half as much as their male counterparts”.
I’m not really sure about the accuracy of the study they refer to, and I’m certainly not aware of such a drastic gap among any of my colleagues, but it did get me thinking.
For new grads, I struggled to see how there could be such a gap, where so many internships and graduate programmes having standardised remuneration packages. However, concerning those who are a few years into their careers, there is the theory women are less likely to ask for pay rises than men.
In this day and age
The pay gap is undoubtedly noted across the profession as a whole, with the SPVS Salary Survey in 2014 noting a gap of 10%.
This begs the question, why? How on earth, in the 21st century, despite being a predominately female profession, can there be this difference?
This does, of course, depend on what is being taken into account.
- Do men progress quicker to partnership roles?
- Are there more men than women in these senior positions?
- Is that accounting for the increased number of women in part-time veterinary work compared to men?
We have a private profession where salaries vary so much depending on the employer, the value of an employee to a practice, location, and other benefits or job perks. Therefore, it is hard to speculate without being able to compare colleagues with similar abilities and experience in like-for-like roles.
Unacceptable
All that aside, there certainly is a pay gap in some form within the veterinary profession, and this is unacceptable. It should be unacceptable in any profession.
Maternity leave may well be inconvenient and expensive for employers, but that should not result in discrimination, purely for being born female.
To all the veterinary feminists out there, instead of getting angry at the world, do something for yourself and for the rest of us in the profession – ask for the pay rise you deserve and do not allow yourself to be undervalued purely because nature made you this way.
Don’t put up with financial discrimination. There are enough women in the profession to drive a change, and that we should do.
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