Omg, yes, she’s unreal! From a distance, she looks like a pony kid. Even her boots look teeny tiny.
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While I agree that men who are dedicated to horsemanship are not doing it to attract women, I think that there is a crossroads for boys who ride.
For boys, puberty is the great divide. Some, who enjoys riding and horses in general stick with it despite it not being a traditional, school affiliated sport. Others feel the pull of fitting in with the inter mural sports or just relent when they feel somewhat different because they like to ride.
My son never rode but once he realized that there were cute girls in stretchy pants at the barn and the shows, he offered to help me more often. A couple of his friends ride, no surprise since he’s “riding adjacent” due to me having taught a bit, ridden for 50years and working at a tack store. One is the son of a rider friend of mine. The boys became friends as children and are friends now in their early 20’s. The one whose Mom owns a barn has becomes pro, the other still rides as an ammy.
As for men over 30 who ride, I’ve met a couple a categories. Some rode as kids and decided to return to it once settled in adult life, some are lifelong riders especially those who have parents who ride. Another category is men who fell in love with a horsey woman and decided he couldn’t compete, so why not join her? A couple of my customers are dads to horsey girls who “inherited” the horse when girl went to college. We also have a population of men from NYC who have homes in the Hudson Valley and like the country gentleman role and the fox hunting scene in Columbia and Duchess Counties.
There are a lot of men in the eventing world around here, more than in the H/J world, even though eventing is a significantly smaller population. Not sure but maybe a higher percentage of men who begin riding as adults like the risks and challenges of eventing.
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I work in a profession where women are severely underrepresented, especially at the top of the hierarchy of achievement. Two observations motivated by my experiences in that context:
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The social dynamics in my field can be tough for women, especially young women. There can be unwanted attention (and worse), but also much less nefarious exclusion, such as through social events that appeal to more traditionally male interests or conversations that center on the shared experiences of men. Sometimes, there are conversations that parallel this one, in which men joke that women in the profession stick around to benefit from a gender ratio or dating pool that is favorable to women who date men. Those sorts of experiences haven’t soured me on my job or my colleagues, but they are cringy at best. I think even good natured or complementary joking can be uncomfortable to, especially, young people of any under represented group in any context — it draws unwanted attention. If I were a teenaged boy stumbling across this thread, it wouldn’t make me feel more welcome in horse sports, that’s for sure!
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Women who choose and persist in my profession are positively selected. Since it can be harder for women fit in or even succeed, those who do choose to stick around are often more motivated and more innately suited for the profession than the average man in the field. Of course, this can make the few women stick out even more, because just by virtue of selection they are more visible at the top of the profession. I think there’s a similar dynamic for men in horse sports. Those who stick with it, despite different and greater social pressures than girls face when they begin riding, are likely disproportionately motivated and talented.
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I live in a coastal metro area where most riders are women in English disciplines. Drive 2 hours over the mountains and you are in actual beef ranch range country. There are a lot of men riding Western there, either actually ranching cows or back country trail riding or packing out to hunt or in the rodeo sports. The hilly terrain means on mosting grazing land you still need a horse to check cattle. I was at a guest & small cattle ranch that ran horses on the adjacent forest service land and the cows and calves were all over the place through the forest.
We still have small town rodes all over the interior ranch country and except for barrel racing, it’s pretty much 100 per cent men in the various disciplines like roping and bronc riding.
Women do team penning and I think cutting.
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LOL. That’s not True. In fact, we women have more opportunities now to move up and get a higher education. My roommate got a full ride to Harvard and to her PhD program because she was a woman and Ballroom danced; that’s what she told me.
Meredith had a baby and she got to keep her points. The ones who cried the most about it was WOMEN! There was one poster here who said that Meredith hatched a meatloaf.
Women want a family and that’s ok. There are lots of C suite women who have families. The medical field is full of them as corporate too.
Men work just as hard, if not harder to keep their horses and backers. It’s a dirty business where they can lose their horse to other riders.
Margie, Beezie, Laura, Lillie, Amy Millar, Anne K, Kathy K, Mary Chapot, Suzie Hutchenson are also top women riders. The whole horse scene is saturated with women. Look at the Big EQ. 90% women.
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The OP was not about raw proportions of men vs women, we can all plainly see more women in all levels, but rather why so many men at the top. And breaking it down by the money it’s even more glaring. Your anecdata aside…
lol! Not sure what the meatloaf comment is but it sounds pretty offensive? I’m glad it’s amusing to you. Regardless, there are cold statistics:
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The meatloaf comment was horrible, but that poster got a ton of likes for it. The dogpile on Meredith was terrible just because she wanted to be a mom. Meredith was able to keep her points and sponsorships while she had her baby and the women on COTH didn’t take to kindly to that.
Who says there aren’t enough women in C suite? It’s strictly opinion no matter how you slice it. Maybe you’re opinion is 100% women in c suite, while others think different. No amount on graphs or articles will change that.
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Isn’t this the point of this whole thread? Women dominate in all levels until you get to the very top, where there are lots of men. So the question is either where did those men come from, or where did all those women go?
In my experience, everyone gets a full ride for PhD programs - upon acceptance you get a fellowship that includes tuition and a stipend. It has nothing to do with gender or dancing. Maybe that depends on the program though - I’m talking about graduate programs in the sciences.
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Um, the women who choose those careers? Is it just their opinion that they are treated differently?
I think that there is plenty of evidence that we should believe them.
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As someone that works with companies to help build and develop talent to achieve greater equity across leadership roles, this comment is most definitely not opinion.
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How so? Many people apply to jobs/promotions and only the best get selected. It sucks, I felt I was the right person for a job but I someone else was chosen. That’s life and politics.
I’m a molecular specialist and a promotion open up for a supervisor. I had all the experience and qualifications yet I wasn’t chosen. Instead of crying, I asked what I needed to do to be selected if the position would to open up again. When I knew that another one wouldn’t open, I left and got a better job. Same goes for sales (which is cut throat), when I left the lab.
Now I work for Pharma and it’s so stress free then clinical and way more opportunities to grow with the company.
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Then you start a company and hire all women.
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Maybe because the women either have families or run the business. There is a ton of work that happens behind the curtain which can’t be done by everyone. Maybe these women went to college and got degrees in business to run a barn. Some maybe burned out and started new hobbies. I know, lots of maybes. 
I know, why don’t you ask the top riders? Set up an interview and ask why the FEI top ten is all men. That would be a good start.
Oh, I can tell you’re not like those “other girls.”
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Not my experience. I got a research assistantship, and in-state tuition. Most of the students in my program got either a research assistantship or a teaching assistantship. But this was many decades ago.
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@Janet, and @TWilson, the RA/TA is actually part of the “full-ride” PhD students get. I still have to pay the students, and in those cases it allows the PI (Your advisor) to possibly shift the stipend to the university. Generally, RAs are paid by the grant under which you are “hired” to study while TAs are paid by the university. In both cases the student learns aspect of the academic world (teaching and scholarship) while earning their stipend.
I was an RA who worked on multiple projects unrelated to my primary research to earn my stipend.
The faculty PI still has to pay the student’s tuition, insurance, etc.
Back to the real topic here. The idea where male equestrians come from is simple as I have said. It is the same place from where female equestrians come. Hard work, diligence, and commitment. It is NOT being a lone guy around lots of girls. It is not some behind the scenes pay/support. People make choices to stay or go, men and women.
At the very top, yes, it is all about money and NOT skill or ability. This is why there is concern that many great riders and trainers are being passed over causing a lack of depth for international competition.
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The most vicious vipers in sales were women in a company I worked for and it wasn’t funny. They would ask you about you homelife and when you talked about it they would complain to my supervisor. “Stop talking about ponies” I was told. So when I just talked business, they would complain that I wasn’t talking about home life. You can’t make it up!
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It’s entirely unsurprising you encountered a thick streak of “mean girl” culture in pharma sales. It’s unfortunate you haven’t taken any useful lessons from your experience.
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I’ve told my story before, so I’ll be brief (maybe). I used to think the same. When I took my first job in Biotech it was at an appropriate level and I advanced quickly from there. I was wearing director shoes in no time so I thought the women that complained were just whiners. Then I started looking around the room. Every board meeting I sat in, I was the only female. In my first company, all the scientists were female, but all the execs were male. The females could rise to director, but none made it past that. And the rate of rise for females was slower. I could see this exemplified over the industry as I was hiring more and more people. If you looked at male candidates vs female candidates with equal qualifications, you could see the disparity in salaries and rate of rise. I moved into a company with two very similar scientists (I was their boss so I’m well familiar with their work). One had 6 years industry experience and one had 20. Guess which one made more money (significantly)? And how did they 6 year out end up at such a high level? it wasn’t his outstanding work, I can tell you that. I could tell that same story over and over again…with different players.
I will say I have seen some improvements, but we are still way behind.
It isn’t as simple as the most qualified gets promoted (unless you consider being male a qualification)
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