‘This is a man’s world’ is the sentiment Danica Patrick shared with young women at the Hungarian GP. A man’s world that requires women in motorsport to be ‘more masculine’.
Last weekend at the Hungarian GP, F1 Juniors made its debut on Sky. But it was the adult F1 presenter (former Indy Car and Nascar driver), Danica Patrick that sparked debate.
When speaking to Scarlett (F1 Junior presenter), Patrick spoke about women in motorsport, commenting:
“As I’ve always said in my whole career, it takes 100 guys to come through to find a good one, and then it takes 100 girls. That takes a long time to find a good one, right? It’s just, the odds are not in favour of there always being one or being many of them.
And at the end of the day, I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive. You have to, you know, handle the car – not only just the car, because that’s a skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, in a female mind.
You have to be, like, for me, I know if somebody tries to bow up or make it difficult on me, I would go into like an aggressive kill mode, right? You just want to go after them, and that’s just not a natural feminine thought. I say that because I’ve asked my friends about it, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s not how I think’.”
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Cover Your Ears Kids!
There’s a time and place, right, and this was neither. To make these comments on F1 Juniors, with young girls watching is heart-breaking.
Telling young girls that being feminine and having a ‘female mindset’ will prevent them from succeeding in motorsport, is horrific. Yes, motorsport is male dominated. Yes, racing is aggressive. But to insinuate that women don’t have the mindset to go head to head with men is ludicrous. Women are just as capable of being aggressive regardless of their gender. Danica Patrick is a role model for women but it’s her mindset that seems to be the problem, a mindset that is stuck in the past.
Patrick is entitled to her opinion but next time, maybe she could not crush young girls’ dreams on TV..
Barriers For Women In Motorsport
But a woman’s mindset isn’t one of them.
Harmful stereotypes reinforced by role models do so much damage. We expect role models to encourage, not diminish. Leaving many women questioning if Danica Patrick is the right person to have on our screens.
Patrick could have left it at ‘you need to be aggressive to be successful’ instead she insinuated that women’s femininity is a weakness. The harmful stereotype she’s put out feeds into this idea that women have to act a certain way or change themselves in order to excel.
This is the wrong message to be sending to anyone, let alone young girls.
Patrick has spent many years fighting to be respected in a male dominated environment, so perhaps her comments are a reflection of internalised misogyny…