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

Abstract

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.

‘A good girl is worth their weight in gold’: Gender relations in British horseracing

“…When dealing with 500-kg animals of varying temperaments and dispositions it is axiomatic that one must rise to the physical demands this challenge brings. But as Butler (2014) rightly points out, male jockeys might have to starve themselves to the point of ‘feminised’ litheness and physical weakness simply to make the weight for a big race. Insistently recruiting men to make low weights for flat racing, rather than capable females who can make weight limits more comfortably, encourages weakness, unhealthy diets and eating disorders among male jockeys (Von Hippel et al, 2017).…”

“…Indeed, Pendleton’s performance and media coverage, ironically, served to highlight just how far working women inside British racing still have to travel. Her race that day was won by a female jockey, Nina Carberry, a fact rendered largely ‘invisible’ (Butler, 2014: 413) by the ex-cyclist’s media profile and celebrity status.…”

“…Despite some impressive work on the history of horseracing and its role as an increasingly global business (Cassidy, 2002; Hill, 1988; Huggins, 2003; McManus et al, 2013), scholarly contributors have only recently begun to explore the gendered subculture of racing and the role of women in the professional racing yard (Adelman and Azeredo Moraes, 2008; Butler, 2013, 2014; Butler and Charles, 2012; Hedenborg, 2007, 2015; Roberts and MacLean, 2012; Velija and Hughes, 2019). Broadly speaking, accounts of the position of women employed in the horseracing industry largely resemble those of women in the general manual workplace.…”

“…Finally, the ultimate capacity to elevate female riders lies with owners and trainers, who tend, instead, to favour what they believe is the tried and tested formula – winning male jockeys. As a result, women jockeys rely largely on patronage and chance for their success (Butler, 2014). This is despite evidence that female riders are probably slightly better performers than males (Grimes and May, 1995).…”

‘Men fall like boiled eggs. Women fall like raw eggs.’ Civilised female bodies and gender relations in British National Hunt racing

“…The dominance of male NH jockeys is often perceived as naturally occurring and there is an assumption that female bodies are weaker and less biologically suited to the demands of NH racing. The research reflects a growth in research on gender and equestrian sports which is due due to three interrelated factors that make the sport an interesting analysis for the study of gender relations: (i) the relationship between a human athlete and a horse, and the role of the horse as a significant factor in jockeys’ success (Butler, 2014); (ii) it is one of only a few sports in which men and women compete together and race against one another; and (iii) racing is an industry as well as a sport (Cassidy, 2002). The racing figuration includes a network of interdependent relations, including jockeys, breeders, trainers, owners and punters (McManus et al, 2013).…”