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

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.