This is a very common subject on the veterinary website I am a member of. We have discussed the fact that due to our female gender our salaries are about 0.70$ to every 1$ men earn. Many men have acknowledged this as well-several articles have been written, so the proof is out there. Many practice owners say that women are unpredictable. They will tend to get married (or already be married) and thus children come next and who loses out-the career and thus the practice owner that hired them. Then there are those women that are not married(me), no children and feel that the married ones are creating a stereotype and holding us back at times due to this stereotype.
There are the practice owners (mainly men but some women as well) that expect some of the female associates that have children to raise them and also maintain a 60 hour work week-a few can but most can't do this. As women and as professionals, many of us feel torn between or careers and family. Something usually has to give, not many can do it all. I work with 2 women that have children and work full time-one has her mother taking care of her little girl during the day and the other has a stay at home husband. If they didn't have this help there would be no way they could work full time.
As more and more women enter the profession (about 60-70% of vet students are women) and the older vets (mainly men) retire-our profession is going to go through a huge change. Some good, some bad. The next 10-20 years are going to be very interesting.
I am not sure if this is what you were getting at James, but I thought I would express my view on my own profession.
ETA-sorry about typos and spelling errors, I am a scientist not a writer
