This is interesting to anyone who was running back in the bad old days, when there were very few women running in road races. Even farther back, women were actively discouraged from running. Katherine Switzer's run at the 1967 Boston Marathon wasn't that long ago.
Even though women make up a bit more than half the population, women were still over-represented at the Shrimp Festival 5K. Is this an anomaly? Are women still a minority in road racing? Or are women becoming represented in road races in proportion to their numbers in the overall population? Or is road racing becoming a women's sport, with men about to slip into the minority?
These aren't questions to answer in an evening, but I'd thought I'd look at the numbers for my favorite road race, the Palace Saloon 5K. When we were looking at the results this year, we noticed that nearly half of the finishers were women. Women actually made up a significant majority of the pre-registered runners, which speaks well for women's intelligence, commitment, and ability to plan for the future. But back to finishers. How has the proportion of women finishers at the Palace Saloon 5K changed over the years? Unfortunately, even though the race has been around for 35 years, I only have good numbers for the years that I've been working with the Palace 5K. Here they are on a chart:
The trend does seem to be toward a greater proportion of women participants. Of course, this is just one race. If someone looking for a doctorate in Recreation and Leisure Studies needed a research topic, they could see if this was a general trend in road racing. Or if it was dependent on the length of races. Or some sort of geographic variable.Or maybe all that research has already been done, and I'm behind the curve. Again.
Links:
- 2009 Shrimp Festival 5K results
http://www.1stplacesports.com/shrimp09res.htm - Okefenokee Track Club
http://okefenokeetrackclub.blogspot.com/ - Katherine Switzer writes about the 1967 Boston and running
http://www.katherineswitzer.com/life.html
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