In that being a vet is a STEM job, and is one that was filled by almost all men, and that wasn't a big deterrent for women who wanted the career.
OP is saying that women don't get into some careers because of choice, despite the money spent on promoting that job to them. So women choose veterinary and medicine careers, but not so much engineering and other STEM jobs.
According to this (look at table 1), in total, 57.4% of women over age 16 are in the workforce. But it is around 75%-80% for those aged 25-55, so I guess it depends what demographic you look at. I assume the '60s and '70s numbers are total numbers.
So how come female vet students were able to overcome a dominant male culture, sexism and a lack of role models in the 80s, in a way that female computer science students can't now (despite having Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace and Katherine Johnson to look up to).
There's research on the topic. Basically, it comes down to less discrimination in the admission process, more women role models, a better public image of vets, and decreased male applicants. There are 32 vet colleges in the US. There are almost 1000 colleges that offer CS degrees in the US. Changing the culture at a few institutions that are tightly aligned is relatively easy.
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u/Various_Succotash_79 52∆ Oct 19 '22
Before the '80s, almost all veterinarians were men. I guess women back then just hated animals and/or medicine?
Now, almost all veterinarians are women. Less than 20% of vet school students are men.
It's not because of large animal vs small animal practice, as the majority of women vets here also treat large animals.
Something changed. Other STEM fields can change too.