Maines on women's career choices

download iron man online Rachel Maines, a [WITH member and] scholar of science and technology, wrote a piece in the May 25 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education asking “Why Women Become Veterinarians but Not Engineers.”  She points out that schools of veterinary medicine are dominated by women, with 77% of the students in doctoral veterinary-medicine being women, and up to 99% of undergraduates, as compared with 18% of engineering undergraduates being women.  What is striking is that this shift toward women’s participation in the profession has been extremely rapid and apparently spontaneous.  In response to questions about why this has happened, some have cited Title VII, the publication of Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, and the low pay associated with veterinary practice.  But Maines refutes each of these and instead recommends that studies be undertaken to attempt to learn what has happened in veterinary medicine that might be applicable to engineering and science. (See http://www.chronicle.com)

–from http://www.worldexpertise.com/May_2007.htm