When women first entered the veterinary profession in the 1920s it was widely assumed that their future, as distinct from that of the profession as a whole, lay almost exclusively in small animal practice. As the 'weaker sex', the male elite argued that women were unsuited to both the physical demands of work with large animals, including prestigious equine practice, and the stressful lifestyle associated with that type of practice. Instead they were expected to be contained within the relatively marginal field of 'pet practice', supposedly better suited to their small hands and caring natures. By embracing 'women's work' rather than seeking avenues into the traditional male strongholds, women vets in the three decades from 1922 were integral to demonstrating the utility of small animal work, its financial viability, as well as its unique clinical and surgical opportunities. This had important consequences for the profession. By the late 1950s the exceptional and unanticipated growth in small animal practice meant that it represented the bulk of the work undertake not simply by women vets, but by the majority of the heavily male-dominated profession in England. This meant once denigrated 'women's work' had effectively become 'men's work'. This paper will look at how these changes were managed within the profession, to show how arguments designed to contain women within small animal practice were initially utilised by women and ultimately recast when men came to dominate the field.