Does society underestimate women? Evidence from the performance of female jockeys in horse racing

Alasdair Brown and Fuyu Yang

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2015, vol. 111, issue C, 106-118

Abstract: Women are under-represented in many top jobs. We investigate whether biased beliefs about female ability – a form of ‘mistake-based discrimination’ – are partially responsible for this under-representation. We use more than 10 years of data on the performance of female jockeys in U.K. and Irish horse racing – a sport where, uniquely, men and women compete side-by-side – to evaluate the presence of such discrimination. The odds produced by the betting market provide a window onto society's beliefs about the abilities of women in a male-dominated occupation. We find that women are slightly underestimated, winning 0.3% more races than the market predicts. Female jockeys are underestimated to a greater extent in jump racing, where their participation is low. We discuss possible reasons for this association.

Keywords: Gender; Glass ceiling; Discrimination; Horse racing; G14; J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:111:y:2015:i:c:p:106-118

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.031

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