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Abstract
This exploratory study examines the existence and effects of barriers to women's participation in the flat racing industry, one of the only major professional sports in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms. Six participants, three men and three women with at least three years experience working in the flat racing industry, were recruited for the study. Data were derived from semi-structured individual interviews and analysed using discourse analysis techniques. The results from this study suggest that women face discrimination in horse racing on account of a number of factors, the three main perceived reasons are due to their physical strength, body shape, and the tradition and history embedded within the industry. Although there is a shift starting to occur by which more women are coming through in flat racing, this is slow. Research participants consider that women may find these barriers and perceptions held by others difficult to overcome, limiting efforts to achieve equality in this sport. Given the exploratory character of the study, conclusions are tentative and we propose a number of areas for further research.
Notes
1 Laura-Jayne Roberts conducted all of the field work and data collection as well as the first stage of analysis and writing, Malcolm MacLean's contribution is in assistance with subsequent analysis, development of the argument and the second stage of writing.
2 CitationAppadurai, ‘Introduction’, 38.
3 CitationCoward, What We Do.
4 CitationCassidy, Horse People, 148–150.
5 CitationVamplew, ‘Reduced Horse Power’, 94–111.
6 CitationWhite, Race Goers Encyclopaedia.
7 Tess Kay and Jeanes, ‘Sport and Gender’, 89–104.
8 CitationCassidy, Sport of Kings.
9 Ibid., 36.
10 CitationVamplew, The Turf; CitationVamplew and Kay, Encyclopaedia of British Horseracing; CitationHuggins, Flat Racing and British Society; CitationHuggins, Horse-Racing and British Society; CitationFox, The Racing Tribe; Cassidy, Sport of Kings; Cassidy, Horse People.
11 CitationCase, Down the Backstretch; CitationCase, The Right Blood.
12 CitationWinters, ‘Industrial Relations-Lite?’, 87–100; CitationWinters, ‘We don't want to frighten the horses’; CitationTolich and Bell, ‘The Commodification of Jockey's Working Bodies’, 101–13; CitationRay and Grimes, ‘Jockeying for Position’, 46–61; CitationHedenborg, ‘Female jockeys in Swedish, 501–19; CitationHedenborg, ‘Stable chores’, 101–16; CitationHedenborg, ‘Trainers of Racehorses’, 65–85; CitationHedenborg, Arbete på Stallbacken; CitationGreiff, ‘Presumably I Am Like’, 49–64.
13 Coward,‘What We Do’. These data refer to the last complete season before data collection.
14 CitationOffice of National Statistics, 2008 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
15 Hedenborg, ‘Female Jockeys in Swedish’; CitationHedenborg, ‘The Popular Horse’.
16 CitationHedenborg, ‘Unknown Soldiers and Very Pretty Ladies’, 601–22.
17 Ray and Grimes, ‘Jockeying for Position’, 50.
18 Cassidy, Sport of Kings.
19 White, The Race Goers Encyclopaedia.
20 Coward, What We Do.
21 Cassidy, Sport of Kings, 37–8.
22 Huggins, Flat Racing and British Society.
23 Coward, What We Do.
24 For useful statements of the theoretical position underpinning this analysis; see CitationBeechey, Unequal Work; CitationMacintosh, ‘Gender and Economics, 3–17; CitationWeston, ‘Production as Means, Production as Metaphor’, 137–51.
25 We note Janet Winter's on-going but as yet unpublished analyses of British horse racing labour markets, and the likelihood that these will unsettle this presumption.
26 Hedenborg, ‘Female Jockeys in Swedish’.
27 Hedenborg, Arbete på Stallbacken.
28 White, The Race Goers Encyclopaedia.
29 Cassidy, Sport of Kings.
30 Ibid., 109.
31 Cassidy, Sport of Kings; Cassidy, Horse People.
32 Ibid.
33 Cassidy, Sport of Kings.
34 Hedenborg, ‘Trainers of Racehorses’; Greiff, ‘Presumably I Am Like’.
35 Cassidy, Sport of Kings, 110.
36 Hedenborg, ‘Female Jockeys in Swedish’.
37 Tolich and Bell, ‘The Commodification of Jockey's Working Bodies’.
38 Hedenborg, ‘Female Jockeys in Swedish’.
39 Ray and Grimes, ‘Jockeying for Position’.
40 Ibid.; Cassidy, Horse People; Fox, The Racing Tribe.
41 Cassidy, Sport of Kings.