Racing comes together to celebrate International Women’s Day

For 2021 International Women’s Day, racing as a sport has come together with the mission statement ‘Women in racing, striding for more’. 

The Racecourse Association is marking the occasion by celebrating the women of the RCA. The RCA has an inclusive spirit and out of the eleven people on its executive team, six are women. This week they will be sharing stories highlighting the work of six female employees.

Their Chairman, Maggie Carver CBE, was the first woman to become Chairman of the RCA when she did so in 2015, 108 years after the association was founded. This is just one example of the boundaries women continue to push in the industry. To read the stories of the RCA’s female team members visit their website.

Great British Racing has an exciting week lined up showcasing ten different roles women have in the racing industry through a series of video clips. These include record-breaking jockey Hollie Doyle, Aintree clerk of the course Sulekha Varma, history-making Khadijah Mellah, and many others.

Women in Racing continue to develop the profile of women in the sport. On International Women’s Day they hosted a workshop; ‘Mentoring – a life skill for more than just career progression’. The volunteer-led organisation has a mentoring and a bursary programme and their current webinar interview series Careering Ahead highlights how women have carved out their career paths both in racing and other sports.