Where are the racing women in leadership?

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Some years ago, the Chief Operating Officer for Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, said that men still run the world and she wasn’t sure it was going so well. Sandberg is worth a reported US$1.8 billion (AU$2.4 billion), she has featured on influential lists the world over and she’s a working mum. When she talks, people listen.

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Sandberg said a truly equal world would be one where women run half our countries and companies, and men run half our homes. She said the promise of equality was not the same as actual equality, but when you’re worth that much money, you can have an opinion on anything.

The thing is though, Sandberg has long been a power-player in international business. She has mixed it with the heads of Google, Yahoo and Facebook, and she’s had a front-row seat to gender struggle since 1991.

Sandberg believes that women are vastly under-represented in leadership roles around the world, and all leadership, from parliament to private enterprise. She cited that just 21 per cent of seats in parliaments worldwide are held by women, while only 13 independent countries out of some 197 had a female head of government.

She wasn’t on a bandwagon, and she isn’t a theatrical, bra-burning feminist. In fact, Sandberg is a successful, professional executive, and she was just pointing out the obvious.

The facts don’t lie

Sandberg would have plenty to say about racing if she cast her attention in its direction.

Currently, there is no serving female chair of any principle racing club in Australia, albeit there is representation at a board level. It means that, largely, women are under-represented at a decision-making level industry-wide.

While no recent, detailed research has been conducted into the numbers of women in senior leadership across racing and breeding, in 2016 Dr Peta Hitchens, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne, knocked together some cold facts.

She found that, from 104 positions, women occupied just 18 seats on boards within a principle racing authority. Only 18 per cent of management positions were held by women, and all CEO positions were filled by men.

Hitchens saw that Victoria and New South Wales had the highest proportions of women on management boards, but South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania (in that order) lead all states on women representation in senior management positions.

None of the figures were flattering.

Victoria had a 29 per cent figure of women to men on its racing boards, and New South Wales 27 per cent. Additionally, Hitchens found that women in senior positions often oversaw human resources, marketing and education, while men in similar management positions largely oversaw integrity and operations.

Hitchens’ research extended across all codes of racing, from thoroughbreds to trotters and greyhounds, and it flagged a significant shortfall when it comes to women in racing leadership.

“I keep thinking I should revisit this research because it's important to highlight progress, or lack thereof, in order to instigate positive change,” Hitchens said. “It was something that I decided to do a number of years ago after working on and off in the racing industry, initially for Coolmore Ireland and Australia, then as a cadet stipendiary steward for Racing Services Tasmania and, later, operations manager (thoroughbreds) at Tasracing.”

Hitchens’ time in these roles sparked her interest in female representation.

“Once I went into the industry, I realised how male-dominated it was,” she said.

The disconnect

At a decision-making level, there is no doubt that women are under-represented.

However, there’s also a disconnect because the shortage of women in policy-making hardly reflects the sheer numbers of women involved in the racing and breeding industry, from the stud barns to the training ranks and the saddle.

Females make up a huge labour force that handles yearlings, rides trackwork and grooms horses, and they are vets, equine nurses, bloodstock agents, studmasters, syndicators, trainers and jockeys. They are high-flying people like Annabel Neasham and Natalie Young, Michelle Payne and Jamie Kah, and Senga Bissett and Linda Monds.

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Most notably, women in broadcasting have a strong presence too, with Caroline Searcy now joined by Lizzie Jelfs and so many others.

So, if females are kicking so many high-end goals across the industry, what’s the story at a policy-making level?

“None of my research surprised me in 2016,” Hitchens said. “I’d already recognised there was an issue a decade earlier, and I was curious as to whether anything had changed. And it hadn’t, so the question is whether anything has changed today.

“The racing industry is data driven. Data on gender and diversity representation is critically needed to ensure there is a voice for participants in all facets of the racing industry.”

The sisterhood

Since Hitchens’ research in 2016, Amanda Elliott has served as the first elected female chairman of the Victoria Racing Club (VRC). This happened in February 2017, and Elliott served until November 2020.

It was a history-setting appointment.

In 153 years of the VRC, no female had been its chief policy-maker, and it was unthinkable that it would have ever occurred even a generation ago.

“Even my father would have been surprised because he was of the generation that was the boys’ club,” Elliott said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “But he would have been immensely proud too because there were five children in our family and gender was never an issue. The girls were treated equally to the boys, be it educationally or just playing backyard cricket. We were all the same growing up.”

For close to four years, Elliott brought a vivacious and classy touch to the VRC. She was all in, much as she is with most things in her life. She didn’t see her gender as anything she needed to worry about, which is often a characteristic of women in strong leadership.

“Rightly or wrongly, there are times when you feel you’re being held to a higher standard, particularly in positions that have been traditionally dominated by men,” Elliott said. “I’m sure there are plenty of women in different walks of life who have felt the same way. It doesn’t harm you. It makes you stronger and more determined to aim higher.”

Elliott was also the first elected vice-chairman of the VRC after joining the committee in 2002. She was only the second female committeeman ever appointed.

“I relished my appointment as chairman,” she said. “And not only because of what I thought I could do for the VRC and the sport of racing, but also for the sisterhood. For women. For the VRC, one of the primary racing jurisdictions, to have a female chairman for the first time was really important to encourage other women all over the world.”

Wide-angle lens

When Elliott’s tenure as the VRC chair closed, Neil Wilson was appointed in her place, but Elliott is sure that another female will lead the Club again.

“I’m sure there will be, because once you break that glass ceiling, other women become encouraged to put their hand up and believe that they can attain it,” she said. “Many years ago, well before my time, there were probably lots of women that believed they could run racing just as well as men, but they weren’t given the opportunity and therefore probably didn’t believe they could.”

Elliott is touching on something that Sheryl Sandberg strongly believes.

Because leadership positions are largely held by men, Sandberg said that women don’t expect to achieve them, so they don’t. Likewise with pay, men largely earn more than women, so people, including women, expect women to earn less, and they do.

“Once a few women have done it, and the same is true in training and among jockeys, it gives confidence to those who are entertaining the idea of putting their hand up,” Elliott said. “It takes that self-belief, not just for the sport but for the things that you can bring to it, to get there.”

Elliott believes that her chairmanship woke up a lot of people to the suitability of women for these types of roles. It’s not ego that makes her say that, but circumstance. Her appointment brought a wider consideration of racing’s touchpoints, like gender.

“I think women have a wide-angle lens on life, and that’s because of the enormous breadth of things that women can do at any one point,” she said. “When brought to something like racing administration at the highest level, it’s a huge benefit to this industry.”

Elliott was the 21st chairman of the VRC. She didn’t need to be ‘chairperson’ or ‘chairwoman’. 'Chairman' was just fine with her.

At the time of her appointment, the VRC board was made up of 50 per cent women, while the Club’s female membership was pushing 40 per cent. It was a long way since 1982, when women were finally allowed membership at the VRC.

“People who walk around on tiptoes don’t leave footprints,” Elliott said after her appointment in 2017.

No excuses

Racing is just a small snapshot of the wider lack of women in Australian policy-making. It’s an issue in politics and public enterprise, and it’s an issue in sport in general.

In January last year, businesswoman Josephine Sukkar was appointed as the chair of the Australian Sports Commission, overseeing Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport. The ABC described it as arguably ‘the most influential position in shaping the future of Australian sport’, especially ahead of the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.

Sukkar is a co-founder of the construction giant Buildcorp, and she’s the president of Australian women’s rugby. She is educated and highly qualified, motivated and successful, and it’s all been on her. She didn’t wait for anyone to give her anything.

“I’ve never made excuses for where I am or where I am not,” Sukkar said. “I’ve never blamed anyone else. Even when I had my children, I never waited for anyone to pay me maternity leave, and I was a high-school teacher at the time.

“I’ve always taken control of my own life and been accountable for where I am, and when you think that way, it changes your way of thinking. You’re never waiting for people to change things around you.”

Like Elliott, Sukkar has broken the glass ceiling.

She talks of structural barriers within corporate and sport environments, and of removing gender discussions altogether. She said that decision-making in sport is often seen as more emotive and passionate than corporate decision-making, and that social change, when it comes to gender, is about learning to accept new norms.

“What we’re dealing with here is social change,” Sukkar said. “I don’t think many organisations, be they sport or business anywhere, are going to be able to stand still for very long, otherwise they are going to be like the taxi industry. They'll be disrupted and taken over by something else.”

Sukkar has worked her entire life in disciplines that have traditionally lacked women at the top. Both construction and rugby union haven’t ever kicked gender-parity goals but, like racing, it’s improving.

“There’s no going backwards in construction now with the participation of women in site-based roles,” she said. “The same in rugby. It’s come and it’s stuck, and it’s social change. It’s an acceptance of a different set of social norms, and in racing’s case, it has nothing to do with women and everything to do with where the women are in the pipeline.”

A state of correction

Sukkar has no doubt that there are capable, qualified women in that pipeline that could lead Australian racing.

In her mind, it’s as simple as identifying them and then identifying when they will be ready to lead, and putting in place support structures to bring those women through.

Statistically, however, men are more likely to feel themselves ready for promotion and leadership than women, which can put them several years ahead on the career ladder. And there are other things.

Sandberg said that there is often the assumption that career-driven women can’t balance their success with their personal life. While men regularly manage a top-shelf career alongside a fulfilling home and social life, it’s often much harder for women to do the same.

“I think we’re in a state of correction though,” Sukkar said. “I’m seeing that on all the listed boards I’m on. Back in the day, I was the first woman on most of these boards, so I do think it’s changing. Sometimes sport can lag a little bit because there’s a level of passion and emotional investment that often doesn’t exist in the general workplace.”

The racing industry isn’t short of passion, and it isn’t short of tradition either. In a way, that tradition, as glorious as it is, might be holding the sport back, especially at a leadership level.

International Women’s Day is a great excuse to have the conversation, but Hitchens, Elliott and Sukkar, and certainly Sheryl Sandberg, would say it needs to be had every other day of the year too.