The Intersectional Identity of a Woman from the “Global South” in Motorsport

On July 6th, More Than Equal (MTE) released expert-led research into female participation and the gender gap in motorsport, Inside Track: Exploring the gender gap in motorsport. In this report, there were various things discussed: their research approach, how culture and stereotypes impact drivers as well as change in the field, participation and performance of female drivers globally, and much more. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding this topic. In this piece, I hope to look at this report from a gender studies perspective — and a bit of a literary standpoint as well — and ask a few questions I have in mind after reading it. 

Download the report here: https://www.morethanequal.com/

Firstly, I would like to start by explaining a few terms I’ll be using throughout this article:

These two terms are important to have in a conversation like the MTE report since motorsport is a global phenomenon, with fans and participants from around the world. Without acknowledging the layered identities of the members of the motorsport community, talking about the “inequalities” in the sport is incomplete. Topics such as gender and race can be hard to talk about, but that cannot be a cop-out to push them under the rug, no matter the industry in question.

This is what brought up the question of ‘but what about the rest of the world?’ for me. The report does touch on this briefly, but is that enough? There are, of course, opportunities for talented drivers from the “Global South” to move to Europe, but even then, that does come with quite a lot of costs to cover. Those talents — male or female — that are unable to secure sponsorships or funding to compete in the European series have to give up and try something else eventually. While motorsport globally is expensive and known to be inaccessible to most, there is even more headwind for drivers, women more than men, from the Global South.

The very next section of the report is Views about women in motorsport where they discuss the facts and figures of the gender discrepancy. An interesting part of this section is the research on female fans and their viewpoints on page 10. The three points discussed are about these fans’ passion for the sport, their dissatisfaction with the current environment of female inclusion, and skepticism about initiatives of change that are trying to be implemented. Let’s examine them through an intersectional lens:

The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) piece seems to be the core of the Inside Track report. However, the term itself has a wide variety of meanings. “Diversity” usually includes gender, age, sexuality, race, religion, class, and more — and the report has not explicitly provided a proper definition on which it rides.

While there are efforts to bridge the gender gap and get more women and girls of all ages involved with motorsport, there isn’t a ton of tangible evidence for the fans to truly believe in these efforts. Especially for female fans, even the experience of attending a race can be daunting because of the sexism and eve-teasing they might face. There have been severe cases as recently as last year! Add the element of race, which is currently missing in the dataset the report includes; now that’s a whole different ball game - whether it is dealing with such issues at races as a driver, paddock personnel, or just a fan in the general admission or grandstand seats! It then becomes a point of whether or not female fans of color hold any value in the eyes of the organization since there isn’t a base guideline of how to get help when dealing with incidents of sexism/racism when attending a race. 

Another great point that the MTE report has in its Lack of knowledge about women in motor racing section on page 21 is the absence of women in the topmost levels of motorsport.

There is no rule in F1 that it is an exclusively male sport. Just because there haven’t been women doesn’t mean there can never be any! After all, out of sight does equal out of mind. When viewed from an EDI lens, even the few women who have participated in Grands Prix before were from “the West” collectively. Add in the element of race, there has never been a female driver of color on the grid. In fact, the only driver of colour in the history of F1 is Lewis Hamilton. This is unfortunate because it does add a layer of constantly wanting to prove our worth as someone of color, or as a woman, and most definitely — as the intersection of these two categories — as a woman of color. As one can imagine, it is very taxing to have this persistent pressure on top of other stressors in life.

Now that we’ve explored the views about women of color in motorsport, it’s time to switch gears and look at the key role that media plays in the careers of female drivers of color. Traditional media outlets are important to get up-to-date news about the industry and this gives them the power to influence the fans’ viewpoints about the drivers, teams, and even the sport as a whole.

To add to the Inside Track analysis of media-related data, I tried to search for more research papers on female athletes (in general) and the media. In an interesting paper written in August of 1998 — yes, it is dated, but just like so many research papers being relevant to this day, this one feels like it came out a couple of years ago — there were quite a few quotations that still resonate in today’s world of media coverage on female athletes of color in the US in the 90s. One of the quotes that stood out to me was-

Of course, this is dated information, but it is a similar statistic to today. Unless a person consuming (motor) sports media is not consciously on the search for general female athlete content, but also specifically on female athletes of color, they would rarely get any article regarding this on their timeline organically. Another “recent” article focused on female athletes of color from 2012 also talks about this phenomenon by bringing in the aspect of power and authority.

The people in power/authority figures of major news outlets would rather have a catchy/clickbait-y headline for any woman in sports article than have it be relevant to the main point of interest of the article. Add in the intersectional viewpoint and the headline distorts even further. No matter what the female athlete wants to be highlighted from her performance, many news reporters would put that as an “Oh, by the way” sentence instead of giving useful information about the same to the reader. In today’s goldfish attention span era, headlines do matter for clicks (and reads) but should that come at the cost of an athlete’s identity as a woman, a person of color, or both? 

External sources like fans and the media are key aspects of bringing about change in the industry, but if change isn’t a priority within the organization, there is no way we, as an audience, will ever see it reflected.

For this, More Than Equal has listed some areas to change and their next steps to bridge the gender gap in their report. One of those areas is more grassroots participation. While the focus area is spot on, there are still some grey areas. One question that comes to mind is how they plan on involving more women of color and/or from minority communities or the “Global South”. A potential way for this is by supporting young female karters in regions like South and South East Asia and Africa. After all, this is a bunch of regions that have been overlooked in recent history in the “Global North”. Support for female karters from these regions could be shown through leveraging MTE’s networks to connect them with potential sponsors/teams/investors or maybe even through a scholarship that would allow them to attend a training camp or compete in Europe/the Americas. 

Another aspect of the More Than Equal will is to launch a world-class driver development programme, with an initial cohort joining for the 2024 season. The idea is amazing, but there are a few more questions in mind than answers. Is MTE going to partner with regional championships to make this programme more “globally inclusive” or will it be available only in Europe? Does the initial cohort have girls from various backgrounds and nationalities/ethnicities? Would this programme mainly comprise those currently competing in the European circuit, regardless of their nationalities? These questions can only be answered with time, once we learn more about the programme. Until then, as an audience, we can only continue the conversation this report has started. 

Author’s note

Wow, this has been a bit of a longer piece! If you have stuck around till here, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this little rant I needed to share because my passion for uplifting underrepresented voices would not let me just move on after reading the Inside Track report.

I will leave you with one last thought. Earlier in this piece, I mentioned that motorsport, especially F1, is one of those few sports that allows both male and female athletes to compete together, on the same field. Just a few days before this report even came out; I had seen a YouTube Shorts video, which is a clip from one of VICE’s Anti/Pro debates. The point that the athlete makes is valid; having a biological female go against a biological male is not entirely fair, in sports like basketball, volleyball, and swimming. There was probably a comment or a reaction to this clip as well that I watched where the presenter adds that a trans woman who was allowed to compete in a swimming competition won by a huge margin because of this physical ability.

Now, tying this back to motorsport and F1, since the sport is not entirely reliant on physical ability, where does this put transgender drivers? Given the right opportunities, they too can rise through the ranks and race alongside men and women! This could be an addition to MTE’s long-term plan by working with the LGBTQ+ charity Racing Pride, to support trans girls involved in motorsport and include them in the roster too!