Gender, Work, and Harness Racing

Elizabeth Anne Larsen explores how harness horse racing has resisted gender equalization and excluded women from key roles. With stirring accounts of the strong women who are surviving and succeeding in this sport, Larsen provides insight for studies of gender and work, occupational sex segregation, and women’s studies.

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While gender equality has progressed in many sports since the second wave of the feminist movement in terms of women’s inclusion, participation, and success, harness horse racing has been recalcitrant to change. Gender, Work, and Harness Racing: Fast Horses and Strong Women in Southwestern Pennsylvania investigates the stories of women involved in harness racing to expose how they use the uniqueness of their situation to work for positive change. With stirring accounts of the strong women who are surviving, and sometimes succeeding, in harness horse racing, Elizabeth Anne Larsen’s analysis provides insight for studies of gender and work, occupational sex segregation, and women’s studies.