Women Veterinarians At Conference

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 2

Women Veterinarians At Conference

"The Press 1 ' Special Service

WELLINGTON, Feb. 20. New Zealand has only 11 women graduates of the veterinary schools in Sydney and Brisbane, and of this number the majority are Australian girls who met their New Zealand husbands while they were studying veterinary surgery. According to Miss Barbara Smith, of Upper Hutt, who was attending the New Zealand Veterinary Association’s conference in Wellington, the small number of women who have taken up such a humane career is not because the profession is regarded as a male preserve. She attributes the main deterrents to the expense of five years’ study overseas. Many students fall by the wayside because they are not genuinely enough interested in animals and gaining a degree, says Miss Smith. Male prejudice only enters the picture where large animal practices are concerned. But now men are gradually becoming educated to accept the fact that women are equally as capable as men in this field of work. AU the

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same, the main avenues for women still lie with the treatment of the smaller animals. Miss Smith, who works In a vaccine laboratory, says that there are only three women actively engaged in private practices. The others, apart from one Australian girl. Miss Joan Kater, who is doing diagnostic work at the Wallaceville Research Station, are nearly all married. However, a few have managed to carry their study through and put it to some Use by helping their veterinarian husbands. One such case is that of Mrs R. T. Bailey, of Reefton, who was also attending the conference. Sydney born and trained, she is now fully occupied with running a home and helping her husband in his club practice. This way she says she can still remain a member of the Veterinarians’ Association.

Although she loves all animals, time is not enough to allow her to care for more than her Siamese cat. Also at the conference last week was Mrs K. Murray, of Kaitaia. She, too. is still practising, but in a very different field from Mrs Bailey—her interests lie with the dairy company in her district. Instead of mending the broken bones of dogs and cats and giving injections, she deals with milk fevers, the delivering of calves and general sickness in cows. This she has been doing for four years and judging by the way she spoke was prepared to carry on for another 40 because the job obviously gave her a great sense of achievement.

Mrs Murray has not come up against barriers of prejudice with the men. although she is the only woman working at the Kaitaia Dairy Company. In her own words: “They accepted me very well; if they didn’t like me they never told me to my face.” Many of them, whether Australians or New Zealanders, have been brought up on farms, so it has seemed the natural thing for them to do in taking on a career which includes so much care and work with animals.

They all agreed that a love of animals is something that is really necessary for this job. One could not follow it through without it.