‘A woman has a problem of the type that she is a woman’: Feminisation in horse racing in Poland

In the article, the authors examine the different phases of feminisation of the horse racing field in Poland, starting from the early communist times up to the present. The empirical material for the article is comprised of 20 in-depth interviews with women riders whose careers spanned different decades and is supplemented by field observation and statistics. Following the nationalisation of horse racing in 1950, women were excluded due to the employment policy pursued by the State Horse Racetrack Company and the traditional apprenticeship system. Things changed in 1968, when the status of amateur riders was formally established. After 1989, along with the privatisation of horse racing stables, a new influx of women riders was observed, although only a few have achieved the jockey status so far. The analysis of the social context and class background of women in horse racing is supplemented with the investigation of stereotypes on women’s attributes internalised by female riders. The main claim of the article is that although the socio-economic conditions for horse racing in Poland changed dramatically over many decades, women invariably played ‘rescue roles’, which placed them on the fringes of the world of horse racing.