Motorsport is a male-dominated industry with many exciting new avenues for women to extend the success and diversity of the sport, including F1 Academy, Girls On Track with Motorsport UK and Motorsport Australia, and a few programmes in grassroots like Karting Australia’s Girls Race Too initiative.
However, even with these changes in the sport, there are still many challenges that exist for young girls and women who are passionate about getting involved as a driver, mechanic, engineer, or in media.
Over the last ten years, there has been a noticeable increase for women involvement in motorsport. According to BBC’s Top Gear, women make up just 10% of racers across all categories, with 13% in karting, with Aljazeeran suggesting that 40% of Formula 1 fans are female. However, according to WhichCar?, 23% of the automotive industry is made up of women.
The most frequent challenge noted over six separate interviews with industry professionals is that women are more likely to not be taken seriously, listened to, or acknowledged by the men and older women surrounding them in the workforce.
Tamika McHenry, 22, is a student completing a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace, and an emerging engineer in the motorsport world.
Engineering is a predominately male industry, even away from the motor world. Tamika is gaining experience while furthering her academic credentials to help strengthen her employability.
“If I don’t have this masters, I don’t particularly see myself being accepted easily as an engineer in the industry, because there are a bunch of people who have bachelor’s in engineering; they’re going to take a male over a female.” she said.
It’s clear that going above and beyond is important in the sporting scene, especially for someone as well-educated and passionate as Tamika.
“Having the Masters, it just gives me that leg up and proves that I am wanting to do it. I do want to do Engineering and I do take it more seriously than the guys, perhaps.” she said.
Visibility is an important step to demolishing the never-ending ridiculing of women in male dominated industries. Programmes are already working hard to ensure there are more females getting involved, such as FIA Girls On Track pathways and inspire programmes, and they are working.
However, even with these programmes and professional women helping to diminish the stigma around females in male dominated areas, they do not hold the ability to minimise the challenges that women face.
Harassment and belittlement are in all industries and is unfortunately quite common amongst females more often than not. Experiences across the board include feeling inferior to others around and feeling temporarily incompetent by the treatment by others in their respected industries.
According to Pew Research, in 2017 23% of women compared to 6% of men employed say they have endured this kind of treatment professionally.
Bridget Bell, 38, a motorsport commentator, mechanic, a two-time winner of apprentice of the year, and most recently working on cranes, has spent over a decade in the motorsport industry.
Whilst times have changed over ten years, its increasingly important for the current and emerging females to hold ground, be courageous, and continue to strive towards high achievement for women in motorsport.
One of the only confirmed pathways into the sport for women during the early 2000’s was with promotional “grid girl” positions, and even then, women weren’t really seen behind the scenes in other roles.
Things seemed to dwindle into even more difficult areas when Formula 1 abolished the grid girl roles due to non-aligning societal norms in 2018. This saw the rest of the motor trade following suit, meaning a guaranteed way in fell away for passionate, intelligent, and confident women.
Bridget has pushed the boundaries, much like many other women in the motorsport industry across Australia and has worked hard to build a career for herself that started as the face of Perth Motorplex in 2011, later securing herself a spot in daytime commentary for drag racing.
“There was no established pathway for a woman to be taken seriously as a commentator,” she said.
Credibility is an entirely different struggle across the board, with rumour mills spreading, and reputations being questioned. Through stigmatised roles like grid girls, these perceptions can only be held accountable and rectified if given the opportunity.
But it doesn’t just stop there. Women are scrutinised further in male dominated industries and are less likely to be listened to, overlooked, and laughed at.
Imposter syndrome is an incredibly difficult experience for high-achieving females in male dominated industries. The ratio of men to women is needing to be dismantled as visibility in all industries seems to be at the basis of imposter syndrome for women in the professional realm.
“I understand what the young ones are going through. Being undermined on your ability, people will assume for you what your capacities are, usually wrongly,
“People have been proven wrong enough times to let go of preconceived notions of what the role of a woman is.” Bridget said.
Australia is arguably behind when it comes to women in motorsport and the opportunities available to succeed when compared to areas in Europe, even with promising programmes to boost female involvement from grassroot level with Karting Australia, all the way to further progression and career development with Motorsport Australia.
In society, there is always negative comments made on social media towards women in motorsport, most recently towards Jessica Hawkins, the most current female to undergo a Formula 1 test since 2018.
Expectations of women are constantly held prehistorically in regards to sport, where they are less likely to be accepted and acknowledged when climbing the success ladder in a variety of roles, however women like Bridget and Tamika, and many others continue to push the barriers and excel in their respective roles of expertise.
Common experiences of young and more established women across the motorsport industry continued to point towards unfair judgement, belittlement, and the feeling of incompetence.
There is still an alarming rate of mistreatment of women across all male-dominated industries in multiple pieces of research, but with more conversation, the narrative can be changed.
Hi Tayla Talks fam! Some exciting blogs coming up, but for now enjoy the latest journalism assignment – I poured my absolute all into this and cannot thank the six wonderful women I interviewed enough.
Until next time,
Tayla Talks ❤
Tayla Talks 
Leave a comment