Women have shaped the RSPCA family from the very beginning, and their influence runs far deeper than many people realise.
It was Princess Victoria who first lent her patronage to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1835, when she was just 16 years old. As Queen, she granted the charity its Royal status in 1840, giving us the name we carry to this day. Victoria was a passionate advocate for animals throughout her reign. She funded school prizes for essays about kindness to animals, spoke publicly against vivisection, and even requested that a cat be included on the RSPCA’s Medal of Kindness, reflecting her concern that cats were, in her words, too often misunderstood and ill-treated.
In the early 1900s, Ada Cole took up a different but equally vital cause. A nurse from Norfolk who had grown up around working horses on her family’s farm, Ada was appalled by the suffering of exhausted cab horses on London’s streets and, later, by the brutal conditions endured by horses transported overseas for slaughter. She founded what would become the International League for the Protection of Horses, now known as World Horse Welfare, and dedicated her life to making the transport of horses more humane. Her campaigning eventually helped pave the way for the Exportation of Horses Act in 1937, and her legacy lives on today as World Horse Welfare continues to fight for an end to the long-distance transport of animals to slaughter across Europe.
Then came 1952, when the RSPCA appointed its first two female “patrol officers.” Ninette Gold, aged 19 and a former ballet dancer, and Pat Jones, aged 32, took on roles equivalent to inspectors, breaking new ground in a workforce that had until then been entirely male. By 1959, there were 24 Women Patrol Officers, including two chief inspectors. The RSPCA’s inspectorate is now 64% female, with 274 female officers on the frontline rescuing animals every single day.
That transformation didn’t happen overnight. As former inspector Liz Wheeler, who joined the RSPCA in 1988, has recalled, most inspectors at that time were former military or police officers. It hadn’t been long since the inspectorate was all-male, and before Liz started, inspectors’ wives were expected to answer phone calls on behalf of the RSPCA while their husbands carried out rescues. The world those early women officers entered was a very different one, and the path they carved made it possible for the diverse, female-majority workforce we have today.
Women have made important contributions to animal welfare throughout our history, and that legacy continues through colleagues across our centres, branches, and frontline teams. The charity sector workforce is made up of around 68% women, and at the RSPCA, that female presence is even more pronounced on the frontline. We are proud of the work women do every day to create a better future for every kind of animal.
But while we celebrate how far we’ve come, we know the path isn’t always easy. Women still face hurdles that hold them back. Across the UK, the median gender pay gap for all employees stood at 13.1% as of April 2024, and while the charity sector performs better than many industries, the gap hasn’t disappeared. From balancing unpaid caring roles to tackling bias in hiring and promotion, these are challenges that affect women across every sector, including ours.
This International Women’s Day, the UK Government has launched new employer guidance on closing the gender pay gap and supporting women through menopause in the workplace, as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025. It’s a reminder that systemic change takes sustained effort, and that progress depends on organisations and individuals committing to do better, not just on one day in March but throughout the year.
At RSPCA Oxfordshire and Reading, we see the impact of women’s dedication every day: in our foster homes, at our Rabbit Centre, in the careful rehabilitation work that gives animals a second chance. The women who shaped our past set a standard of compassion and determination. The women who carry that work forward today deserve our recognition, our gratitude, and our commitment to making sure the path ahead is fairer for everyone.
