This site is about you! We want to inspire you and help you to develop the confidence to overcome challenges and follow your passions. In our feminising profession we want to encourage women to aspire to be at the forefront of clinical practice, specialisation, professional bodies, corporates, education, research, industry, government… leaders in every area of veterinary influence.
We are veterinary women who experience first-hand the challenges in developing our careers amidst busy lives, gender biases and multiple demands on our resources. We are working to collate advice blogs, toolkits, role model stories, training and recommendations to enable others to grow and achieve their full potential.
If you are a woman who works in the veterinary sphere, in any role, we hope the site has something for you. If there’s anything else you’d like us to include, let us know. Perhaps you’d like us to interview you about your experiences as a veterinary woman? Or maybe you want to say something but remain anonymous? Please send us your posts, contributions or suggestions to info@veterinarywoman.co.uk.
Help us give Veterinary Woman a voice by signing up for alerts and updates. By commenting, sharing and contributing you can help to inspire other veterinary women. And that’s something we can all celebrate.
Veterinary Woman….aspire, inspire, grow.
Who are we?
Susan McKay BVM & S, MRCVS, MBA
Bringing up two children as a lone parent, juggling that with running my business, my home, my pets, my life: you can bet I’ve faced a few challenges. I invented my own job! After eight tough years in practice, I worked in pet nutrition companies and completed an MBA before setting up my own PR and communications agency just for vet and pet companies. After muttering for way too long about the idea behind Veterinary Woman, I finally got round to setting it up. I wanted to create a place where equality is encouraged and women could source the information they needed to help them reach their potential. As the mother of daughters, I get ‘The Rage’ when I see examples of discrimination. This website is my way of trying to right some wrongs and encourage and inspire other veterinary women.
Claire Newton-Ransom BSc (Hons)
During my practice management career, and later as an editor, I became aware of the alarming rates of imposter syndrome amongst women in the veterinary profession. Indeed, it is something that I have experienced myself. I also observed a tendency for women to be treated differently, whether by clients, colleagues or even by other women. Unconscious bias not only affects how we are treated by others, it can limit how we see ourselves – we don’t give ourselves permission to follow our ambitions. And this needs to change! Veterinary Woman is not just for vets, and it certainly isn’t exclusive to women. No matter what role you hold in the industry, we want to help you to follow your passions. Gender balance benefits everyone and men are just as welcome in our community – and very much needed – if we are to achieve fair opportunity for all.