Gender, Work, and Harness Racing

Fast Horses and Strong Women in Southwestern Pennsylvania

By (author) Elizabeth Anne Larsen

Not available to order

Publication date:

19 November 2014

Length of book:

206 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739190227

While gender equality has progressed in many sports since the second wave of the feminist movement in terms of women’s inclusion, participation, and success, harness horse racing has been recalcitrant to change. Gender, Work, and Harness Racing: Fast Horses and Strong Women in Southwestern Pennsylvania investigates the stories of women involved in harness racing to expose how they use the uniqueness of their situation to work for positive change. With stirring accounts of the strong women who are surviving, and sometimes succeeding, in harness horse racing, Elizabeth Anne Larsen’s analysis provides insight for studies of gender and work, occupational sex segregation, and women’s studies.

Prologue: A Gendered Race
Chapter 1. The Harness Racing World
Chapter 2. Risks and Gratifications
Chapter 3. From a Family Harness Racing Business, or Not?
Chapter 4. Disrespect at the Track
Chapter 5. Working with Family
Chapter 6. Juggling Career and Domestic Demands
Chapter 7. Resisting Sexism at Work
Chapter 8. Women on Future Horse Racetracks
Appendix. A United States Timeline of Women’s Experiences in Harness Racing and Other Sports

This very provocative book explores issues that are normally ignored in harness racing. While far more women hold prominent positions in harness racing today, success for women in the sulky has remained out of reach. It is ironic and unfortunate that in the years of harness racing’s greatest popularity, women were still confined to mostly domestic responsibilities.