We hear a lot about Jamie Kah and Michelle Payne breaking glass ceilings in gallops racing, and Kate Gath and Kerryn Manning having done the same at the trots, but little is said about the long-standing role of women in greyhound racing, which has long been an equal opportunity domain.
But is it really?
In Queensland at least, you’d have to wonder.
The top 3 dog trainers in the Sunshine State are women, as are the top three owners.
Yet as it stands, there are no women at all in senior roles on the board of the new Queensland Greyhound Racing Club, or at Racing QLD.
Racing QLD’s greyhound representative is a male, as are the holders of the two most important greyhound racing positions inside the organisation.
All five members of the new QLD Greyhound Racing Club are men.
Women are relegated to roles in the office, just as they always have been.
It’s not good enough in the modern world.
It never was in the old either.
The QLD Racing Minister Grace Grace is an avowed and self-stated feminist, who is a great champion of equal opportunity and affirmative action to address gender bias in senior roles within organisations, and has benefited from progressive policies to address these issues.
So why is she standing silent while men continue to run a sport that she rules under her domain, one which continues to label female greyhounds as bitches?
Can you imagine what would happen if someone stood up and called the Minister a bitch, or suggested that a bloke should hold her portfolio?
Of course you can; all hell would break loose, and rightly so.
Why then is it okay for this to happen in the greyhound code?
We’ve stopped calling a block of cheese a coon, and naming a f0oty oval nigger.
So why can’t we cease calling female dogs bitches, and stop having all male managements and boards in the sport?
The simple answer is we can.
All we need is leadership by the Racing Minister and a commitment to positive change.
It needs to happen today.
It should have happened long ago.
Pull the whip Minister!
Gender equality for all.