Roy Porter Student Prize Essay, Professional Entrepreneurs: Women Veterinary Surgeons as Small Business Owners in Interwar Britain

Abstract

Although a recent resurgence in interest in female entrepreneurship has focused attention on working ‘on their own account’, the artificial distinction made between professional women and women in business has had the effect of segregating rather than integrating research findings. This article focuses on the first cohort of women to qualify as veterinary surgeons in interwar Britain to challenge the assumption that moving beyond the experience of professional women is the only way to bring new insights into women in business. It examines the construction and contestation of the image and role of the female veterinary surgeon in the two decades after they were first able to qualify in 1919, and the experience of women running their own veterinary businesses. It concludes that in a profession with high levels of self-employment, women’s identities were defined to a greater degree by their business activities than their professional status.