How Michelle Payne's broken the toughest glass ceiling of them all: Winning the ‘chauvinistic’ Melbourne Cup - Women's Agenda

How Michelle Payne’s broken the toughest glass ceiling of them all: Winning the ‘chauvinistic’ Melbourne Cup

We’re not huge fans of the Melbourne Cup here on Women’s Agenda.

Horse racing plus gambling, plus women being referred to as ‘fillies’, is not really our thing, despite the ever-presence of one of Australia’s most influential women, Gai Waterhouse.

However, today, when jockey Michelle Payne became the first woman to win the cup, it was a little difficult to not celebrate her achievement.

And when Payne used the win to declare that women “can do anything”, it was harder still not to want to clap your hands and jump around the room.

This, as Liz Broderick tweeted shortly after Payne’s win, is another crack in the glass ceiling. Another major first by a woman who will leave a significant legacy on the sport — one that may finally see women celebrated for more than just their fashions on the field.

But this particular glass ceiling is one that has been so difficult to break that nobody really saw it coming.

The chances of a female jockey winning the 2015 Melbourne Cup were extremely slim, given there was only one woman racing, but actually a lot higher than previous Cups, when it’s been an anomaly for women to participate at all.

Indeed, Payne’s odds of riding Prince of Penzance to victory were 100 to 1. She’s just the fourth woman to ride in the race.

Payne herself described horse racing as a “chauvinistic sport” after the win. She’s experienced plenty of doubters — including some within the syndicate of owners of the horse she was riding — and today told them to ‘get stuffed’.

I want to say to everyone else, get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world

The comment was a brave one to make and no doubt comes after years of frustrations.

This is a race Payne’s wanted to win since she was five years old. She spent her childhood and her career dealing with naysayers and trying to convince people a woman could get on the podium in Flemington.

The youngest of ten children, she credits her father with instilling a hard work ethic in her from a young age. Her mother was killed in a car accident before Payne’s first birthday. An older sister of Payne’s was killed in a horse riding accident.

Speaking with Leigh Sales on 7:30 tonight, she said she feels sorry for the other women who’ve raced in the Cup but haven’t been able to cross the line first, as well as “all the girls who haven’t had the opportunity at all”.

I hope it opens more opportunities and we get more of a go.

That’s the thing about breaking the glass ceiling. Others will ultimately follow.

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