University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Veterinary Medicine Madison, Wisconsin
Occupational Segregation by Gender in Veterinary Specialties: Who We’re Choosing, or Who’s Choosing Us. Pankowski A1, Morello S1, Genovese J1, Sweet E1, Hetzel S2. 1University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI; 2University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Madison, WI.
Gender-based occupational segregation is observed across veterinary specialties; compared with the veterinary profession, women are underrepresented in surgery and more represented in internal medicine. Our objective was to determine whether residency selection, or the decision to apply for training, drives demographic differences. Names for matched and unmatched residents from the Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program from 2011 to 2020 were coded for gender for large and small animal surgery, large and small animal medicine, cardiology, neurology, and oncology. Match rate by gender was compared using chi-square tests. Gender demographics of applicants for each specialty were compared to demographics of graduates from veterinary medical colleges from the same time period using tests of two proportions. No differences were observed between genders for the likelihood of matching into programs with the exception of large animal internal medicine. Women (44.2%) were slightly more likely to match, overall, than men (39.0%, P = 0.003). The proportions of female applicants overall, and to surgery, cardiology, and neurology residencies were significantly lower compared with the proportion of female graduates (P-values < 0.001). There is no large-scale evidence for gender-based selection bias of residents in the match. Occupational segregation is more likely to occur through the decision to apply for residency. Our analyses assume that an applicant in any year is applying for the first time, after a single year of internship. Applicant quality could not be assessed from information available. These results provide insight into how and when to influence the demographics of specialty practice.