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This article critically evaluates how highly qualified women veterinary surgeons make sense of their constrained professional career progression in a context of postfeminism.

Veterinary medicine has always been a profession built on adaptation and expansion. Early veterinarians in the United States were horse doctors caring for the thousands of animals used for transportation, military work, and other tasks. With the arrival of the automobile and assembly line, horses were quickly replaced with cars, resulting in a dramatic decrease in the US horse population. But veterinarians adapted, expanding their role beyond that of horse doctor. Many veterinarians moved into the public sector, serving in a regulatory capacity at the state or federal level. Others transitioned into companion animal practice, expanding the profession's reach beyond its agricultural and rural past.

There is widespread concern surrounding veterinarians’ mental health. Upon entering the profession, early career veterinary surgeons encounter colleagues with diverse and conflicting identities, manifesting in their differential prioritisation of definitive clinical treatment, interpersonal interactions or the commercial success of the practice.