Motorsports is among the few sporting activities in which men and women are allowed to compete equally and directly and has offered a massive boost in gender equality affairs, despite women still being underrepresented.
Looking back almost five decades ago in motorsports, women have a thin history in any motorsport racing competition. The first record of women to ever participate and compete in an international motorsport championship race-Formula 1, were Italy’s Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958 and Lella Lombardi in the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix.
Years later down the line, the likes of Michèle Mouton, Eliška Junková, and Danica Patrick have proven that regardless of motorsports discipline, women can still kick pedals just like men. Efforts by racing series and championships such as W series, FIA Formula E, Xtreme E, and Formula Women are bearing fruits in increasing female participation and gender parity in motorsports.
While the W series and Formula Women are the only women-dedicated racing motorsports that revoke the stereotype in the frequently male-dominated sector, FIA Formula E is applauded for their initiatives such as Girls on Track-karting challenge, Women in Engineering, Women in motorsport around the globe among others to increase women participation in motorsports. Additionally, Extreme E- is acknowledged for championing the promotion of gender equality in motorsport by mandating that all teams consist of a female and male driver with equal driving duties to ensure equal opportunity for both genders.
Thanks to these efforts over recent years across the spectrum of motorsports, talented women and girls such as Claire Williams, Desiré Wilson, Jutta Kleinschmidt, Sabine Schmitz, Sarah Fisher, Danica Patrick, Susie Wolff, Jamie Chadwick, Molly Taylor, Tatiana Calderón, Juju Noda and Maxine Wahome to name a few, are gaining popularity and are celebrated as outstanding notable women figures in motorsports racing.
It is, therefore, no surprise that women’s future in motorsports from endurance racing to open wheel and karting is steadily but surely progressing forward as they gain a foothold towards the upper echelon of motorsports and automobile sector.
