Women vs Motorsport
As I’m writing this, Louise McEwen has just become the 11th woman to step up onto the Formula One podium on behalf of McLaren.
Girls On Track x Truro High School. Photograph by Faith Totney
In the Motorsport industry, there’s very little feminine representation. But I’m lucky that in my area of Motorsport, there’s women everywhere. Girls On Track has provided a safe space that creates paths for women to get into Motorsport. It’s run by women for women and girls. Seeing the connections between these girls and their role models is something that gives me hope for the future of Motorsport. And yet, there’s still an area of this industry that says “women don’t belong”, that we don’t have an organic interest in the sport, which is frankly quite stupid. My interest in Formula One is something that’s inherited from my grandparents. In my family, we all discuss the race strategies together, the weekend predictions and the mechanics of the sport together. Yet I’m viewed as less of a fan because of gender?
Girls On Track x Truro High School. Photograph by Faith Totney
I love this area of sport with Girls On Track and the fact that there’s so many women thriving in their careers in such a male dominated area is so special. It’s inspiring the next generation over and over again with every woman seen on the screen and trackside through the media. Bernie Collins, Laura Winter, Laura Mueller, Susie Wolff, Abbi Pulling, Marta Garcia, Ruth Buscombe, Naomi Schiff, Lee McKenzie, Jessica Hawkins, there’s not enough time to list the women who have been viewed as nothing short of inspirational for young women in solely Formula One in the past decade. Every time I find myself at a race track working as a photographer I find myself feeling grateful for every woman who’s come before me to make the world of motorsport more accessible for women and girls like me who want to pursue what feels like an impossible dream. I hope that my work can prove that, in the words of Laura Winter, we are here to stay, and the women who work behind the scenes and in front of the camera aren’t going anywhere.
Girls On Track x Truro High School. Photograph by Faith Totney
Photographs by Faith Totney