Women Struggle to Get the Right Fit in Their Racecars

The headline of this article is shamefully misleading given the article's own content. Would it not be more accurate to state, "Smaller Drivers Struggle to Get the Right Fit in Their Racecars?" Clearly it has been an issue for anyone not matching the standard car's dimensions, not just women. Twisting this minor issue into yet another implication that women need special treatment really undermines equal rights and opportunity for women, in my opinion. Women are capable of overcoming the same challenges faced by smaller men in racing.

As someone intimately involved with racing I find some accuracy but mostly sensationalist overstatement in the article. The most telling excerpt is the following: "The lack of female racing drivers at the top level is widely seen as a numbers game — fewer girls start karting, so fewer girls progress. Drivers of both genders leave the sport when money or talent run out" There are an ever growing number of women at the mid and lower rungs of the sport and they have found a growing circle of support from sponsors, manufacturers and teams. The physical aspects of the cars can be an issue but are secondary. To focus on F1 is misleading. It gets the most attention. During a given season perhaps 25 people contest a F1 Grand Prix out of a pool of 2 million pro & amateur racers around the world. We've not reached the proper time threshold for enough women to rise through the ranks and stay there. It's tough at that level--man or woman. Racing series under the immediate radar of mass publications have had plenty of successful women, including championship winners. A note to "civilians"--there is whatsoever no correlation between race and road driving--it's not merely a quick drive to the supermarket anymore than is a stroll down the street simply a slower version of Olympic competition. The same holds true for race car design, despite some ads and the obvious 4 wheels, there is almost no crossover between a race and road car.

Many advances in auto technology have come from aviation. There are successful female commercial and military pilots. Time for another tech-trickle-down?

I grew up in Speedway IN home of the Indy 500 and drove a few open wheel cars in my day Sorry, all proper race car cars and drivers have seat inserts and adjustable brake and clutch pedals. If the ladies don’t have a crew who can do a basic setup, they have bigger problems than the seat and should find a new team. This article is ridiculous

So many things are designed for an average sized male, including cars and guns. I was in the US Army for 3 yrs and the M-16 rifle was designed for men with longish arms. While serving, I observed that almost none of the females could get their nose to the stock site to fire accurately. I said to several soldiers if they only the US military designed these rifle stocks into small, medium, and large sizes, we'd have a lot more accurate shooters. I guess the same goes with race cars.

i am certainly not a race car driver except when i have to avoid stupid drivers. but i am 5'7", 125 lb and still slide a bit in the driver's seat of my 1995 cadillac de ville, despite the plethora of angles and heights the seats allow. leads me to believe all cars are mainly built for men.

What about the people that are 7 feet tall and want to compete? Sorry but this is just a attempt to make everything about sexism.

Its not just race cars that are not built for the average woman in the USA. I've been struggling with this problem for decades. Cars in general are not a great fit for the average woman who in the USA is 5'4", I, at my pretty average 5'3", find just about every sofa, chair, and car seat base too long to fit my legs properly. And in a car, with the seat forward so that I can reach the pedals, I'm too close to the steering wheel for my arms to be comfortable. God forbid I get in an accident and the air bag deploy as my head is so close to the steering wheel I do believe I'd sustain impact injurys from what was meant to help avoid injury.

It's not just race cars that are designed for male drivers. A friend has owned serial BMWs, and his 5 series cars were designed for men, either as drivers or passengers. I'm fairly tall at 170 cm, but I felt like I was looking out of a basement window when I was driving, and I had to struggle to reach seat belts. I'm strong, but still found the doors to be overly difficult to open and close. I've been in other cars that have the same problems. Yet I've never heard my friend, who's 185 cm tall, complain about fitting into small cars. Manufacturers can design their cars as they please, but I do find it odd that they'd create vehicles that would be offputting to half the population. Unless maybe they're not thinking in those terms. As for the race cars, I'm not surprised. Sounds like another example of males not wanting to let the girls in, and then pointing to poor female representation as being due to lack of ability, rather due to a car that was designed for men. And this could explain that adage about why women who do succeed in some fields have to be so much better than men.