By Donald F. Smith, Cornell University, and Julie Kumble, Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts
In the companion article posted on July 31st,[1]
we reported that the percentage of women delegates in the current House of Delegates
(HOD) is 31.4%.[2]
As hopeful as those data appeared relative to the proportion of women we
reported a year ago (25%),[3]
we also expressed concern that the
voting power of women delegates was constrained because of the proportional
weight of the delegates from the ten largest states, eight of whom are men. This
is not to imply that men who serve on the HOD fail to make wise and informed
decisions, but rather that the deliberations of a decision-making body as
critical to the profession as the HOD, should be more representative of the gender
profile of the AVMA membership, which is now well over 50% women.
In this article, we present data that further define the demographic
profile of women in the House. The following graph shows the percentage of men
and women HOD members (delegates and alternates are combined in this graph),
segmented by years of graduation from veterinary college.
The high proportion of women HOD members who graduated in the most
recent five-year periods (including the years 1995-99 and 2000-04) represents
the period when the percentage of women graduates increased from approximately 65%
to 72% of the aggregate of US colleges. Though the number of HOD women
delegates and alternates who graduated during these two five-year periods is
not large (15 and 5, respectively), there appears to be a close parallel
between the percentage of women graduating during this period and the
percentage of women delegates and alternates in the House.
Percentage of men and women in House of Delegates
segmented
by years of graduation from veterinary college.
Delegates and alternates are
combined in this graph.
This is especially encouraging because it shows progress over the
proportion of women in the HOD who graduated in the 15 previous years (1980-1994).
Women who graduated during that earlier period have lower proportionate
representation in the HOD compared to their male colleagues. For example, while
the proportion of women graduates ranged from about 40% in the early 1980s,
increasing to 50% in the late 1980s, and to 60% in the early 1990s, the
percentage of women currently in the HOD who graduated during that period was
far less, ranging from 20% (early 1980s) to less than 40% a decade later.
There may be
multiple personal, professional and even institutional reasons why women who
graduated more recently (1995-2004) are proportionately well-represented in the
House. We do not assume that these demographic changes are happening simply
because more women are graduating and joining the profession. After all, the evidence from earlier graduating
years (noted above) do not support that conclusion any more than
well-documented evidence from other professions.
Though the
numbers are not high, the data presented here are encouraging. In the future,
we would like to explore potential causative factors and propose
recommendations for replicating successful strategies to encourage even greater
proportions of female participation.
While not simply
a numbers issue—women don’t add value by just being at the table—we believe
that the women who have been in the HOD and who are being added now in greater
numbers, are not only making a substantive and positive difference, but have great capacity to add real value to the profession as we face
the challenges ahead.
By Dr. Donald F. Smith and Julie Kumble, Director of
Grants and Programs, Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, Easthampton,
Massachusetts 01027. She can be reached at juliek@womensfund.net.
The authors thank Dr. Lisa Greenhill, Associate Executive Director for
Institutional Research and Diversity at AAVMC, for her contributions and review
of this story; also Mr. Nate Watson ’17 for his contributions to data
collection.
Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu
[1] Smith, Donald F. and Julie Kumble. “Women in
the AVMA’s 2014 House of Delegates, with Some Government Comparisons.” Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine,
July 15, 2014.
[2] AVMA web site, Jul 1, 2014.
[3] Smith Donald F. and Julie Kumble. “Women’s
Leadership in the U.S. Congress and the AVMA’s House of Delegates: Exploring
Parallels and Looking Forward.” Perspectives
in Veterinary Medicine, April 28, 2013.