ALL JOCKEYS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME JOCKEYS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Economists and sociologists have long been attracted to the study of labour markets in professional sports. Much of this research has focused on race and ethnicity, and it has often found that discrimination is endemic in markets for professional athletes (Kahn 1991). Over many years sport has provided a rich environment in which to examine racial discrimination, because the abundance of data on performance allows researchers to control for individual differences in productivity – something not possible in most industries. However, exploring gender discrimination through the lens of sport is much more problematic, given that men and women typically compete in