Before this, I had no idea of just how physically demanding and enduring F1
training is. I came out understanding why McLaren had been referring to
their drivers as “athletes” all day long. Each steer of the F1
wheel round a corner is the equivalent of lifting tens of kgs of weight: the
g-force is mighty.
To say women are physically capable of competing in F1 is actually a
back-handed compliment, then. For Moss, the greatest driver never to have
won the World Championships, to announce that women are as strong as men –
and can endure the sorts of things I saw and did first-hand in training for
a race – is a step forward. How refreshing that he thinks like this.
He should have shut up there. To say women are not capable mentally of
coping with the race is sheer and utter nonsense. Idiotic. Foolish. How
ridiculous! This is sexism for sexism’s sake. The Twitterati
and I have been left dazed and confused.
Only a few weeks ago, did Mossy, aged 83, controversially say he didn’t
want a “poofter” playing him in a film about his life. Now
he thinks the F1 sport is too mentally demanding for “ladies”.
It would be easy to dismiss Moss’ comments as “generational” – he’s
83 and comes from a different era. A polite Susie
Wolff, the latest woman trying to break into F1, did just that,
disagreeing with his comments but saying “we’re in a different
generation”.
Just because ol’ Sir Stirling is old – and a legend at racing – doesn’t mean
he should be allowed to get away with sexism. There is no excuse. Yes we are
in a different generation, a different world now to Moss’ day – so get with
the times.
It reminds me of other strange and outdated contradictions in the jobs market
today. Take the Armed Forces. In the UK, women
still aren’t allowed to fight on the front line. Why? Because men
might die trying to save them. It’s utter baloney. This isn’t a Hollywood
film, where the women will fall over on their way to kill the enemy. The US
is to lift
the outdated ban on women serving in combat units in the military –
so why don’t we?
And of course there’s the recent women
bishops rejection, which some say left the Church’s reputation in
tatters.
Despite the 50-year anniversary of the Equal Pay Act this year, women’s pay is
still incredibly behind men’s, too. Certain careers, like engineering,
science and technology, count around one woman for every eight men working
there.
We need to stand up against the pathetic stereotypes of women being too
mentally pathetic to cope with demanding jobs, like F1 or the Army, or
indeed, so-called “dirty” jobs such as in engineering or IT. We
must start encouraging more women to be the best they can be, regardless of
gender. This country will miss out otherwise.
Wolff brilliantly and plainly sums up her thoughts on women in F1 when she
says: “I do believe that it’s possible for a woman to get in, otherwise
I wouldn’t be doing this.” Err, yeah, obviously. I hate to think what
the question was. Did someone really ask her that?