Women in the weighing room: gendered discourses of exclusion in English flat racing

Roberts, Laura-Jayne; MacLean, Malcolm

doi:10.1080/17430437.2012.653203

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…This can, however, mean the status of the sport is regarded as problematic, especially when comparisons of its cultural agendas are made with other sports (Merlini, 2004). This notwithstanding there has been some discussion of the gendering of the horseracing industry (Roberts and Maclean, 2012). Adelman and Moraes (2008), for instance, highlight the struggle young women have when entering the masculine world of Brazilian horse racing thus reinforcing what Butler (2002Butler ( , 2011 found in horse racing in the UK.…”

Section: A Sport and An Industrymentioning

confidence: 89%

Achieving Against the Odds: Gender, Chance and Contradiction in the Horseracing Industry

Butler

2014

Sociology of Sport Journal

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In this paper I ask how it is that women, despite being a significant part of the workforce in horseracing, are still only a minority of professional jockeys. I explore the relationship between social practices and the gender based inequalities and use Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus to analyze its classed and gendered nature. I draw on an ethnographic study of a racing yard, focusing particularly on the experiences of Anne Dudley, one of my female interviewees, who, unusually, had ridden as a jockey. She typifies the ways in which women’s career trajectories within the racing field are shaped by access to physical and social capital. I argue that habitus can be used to illustrate how redirection(s) in practices or ideas are brought about within a patriarchal, masculine field of power.

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Section: A Sport and An Industrymentioning

confidence: 89%

Achieving Against the Odds: Gender, Chance and Contradiction in the Horseracing Industry

Butler

2014

Sociology of Sport Journal

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“…Roberts and MacLean (2012), in a discourse analysis, state that the limited opportunities for female jockeys are justified, within the industry, on three grounds: physical strength, body shape, and tradition. One trainer in this study suggests that they would always prefer a male jockey over jumps, primarily due to the physical strain, but that the choice was less clear on the flat:…”

Section: The Jockeymentioning

confidence: 99%

Does society underestimate women? Evidence from the performance of female jockeys in horse racing

Brown

Yang

2015

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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Women are under-represented in many top jobs. We investigate whether biased beliefs about female ability - a form of ‘mistake-based discrimination’ - are partially responsible for this under-representation. We use more than 10 years of data on the performance of female jockeys in U.K. and Irish horse racing - a sport where, uniquely, men and women compete side-by-side - to evaluate the presence of such discrimination. The odds produced by the betting market provide a window onto society's beliefs about the abilities of women in a male-dominated occupation. We find that women are slightly underestimated, winning 0.3% more races than the market predicts. Female jockeys are underestimated to a greater extent in jump racing, where their participation is low. We discuss possible reasons for this association

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“…Even so, there is evidence of commitment to diversity in the horseracing industry; a recent study, commissioned by Women in Racing, 2 resulted in the creation of the sport's Diversity in Racing Steering Group 3 (Clayton-Hathway and Manfredi, 2017). The report cited the intimidating nature of the weighing room as a potential barrier for female jockeys, and this could prove important in understanding the barriers existing for sexual minorities; research has demonstrated that many challenges can be attributed to both categories given their divergence from the traditional masculine paradigm (Roberts and MacLean, 2012).…”

Section: Horseracing Gender and Sexualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual minority prevalence and attitudes within the British horseracing industry

Letts

2020

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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This article utilises the theories of Inclusive Masculinity and Organisational Cultural Lag to provide the first comprehensive exploration of sexual minority inclusion in the British horseracing industry. The study employs a quantitative approach, involving a survey distributed to two mixed-gender populations within the sport: jockeys ( n = 149) and non-athlete stakeholders ( n = 308). Results indicate that approximately one fifth of jockeys selected a response other than ‘straight’, while less than 4% of the population of jockeys and stakeholders would view a sexual minority colleague ‘very negatively’. However, despite the relatively high proportion of sexual minority individuals working within the industry, and the positive attitudinal responses towards having a sexual minority colleague, only one of the 149 jockeys surveyed identified as a sexual minority and were publicly ‘out’.

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Women in the weighing room: gendered discourses of exclusion in English flat racing

Abstract: 0000-0001-5750-4670 (2012) Women In the weighing room: gender discrimination on the thoroughbred racetrack. Sport in Society, 15 (3). pp. 1-15.

Cited by 18 publications

References 8 publications

Achieving Against the Odds: Gender, Chance and Contradiction in the Horseracing Industry

Achieving Against the Odds: Gender, Chance and Contradiction in the Horseracing Industry

Does society underestimate women? Evidence from the performance of female jockeys in horse racing

Sexual minority prevalence and attitudes within the British horseracing industry

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