Women in a Man’s World: Why it’s Hard for Women to Get Ahead in Sportscasting

Over 10 years ago and beyond, male football athletes were intolerant to female reporters and writers in the game. Some ask, “How is this going so well.” Jen replies saying, “I treat them as people as much as I do players, and I actually know what I am talking about”. Reports from the cardinals players say that she was a pleasure to have on the field. Now jen says, little girls can have the dream of becoming a coach in a sport they love.

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

Twenty-seven Division I colleges participated in a study where researchers found male athletes received almost six hundred dollars more in scholarships than female athletes and coaches of male teams earned around 190,000 dollars more than coaches of female teams (Kenschaft & Clark, 2016: 355). To earn almost 200,000 dollars more for coaching males instead of females, is only contributing to the sexist theories of women in sports. We wonder why so many female teams cannot find strong coaches but they are all headed to coach the men’s teams to receive more money. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team received two million dollars for winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup, while

This article talked about the daunting unequal media coverage in sports of male sports teams in comparison to females.They researched the true differentiations of coverage between men and women sports. The actual percentage difference of coverage of male vs female sports discovered in their research truly is unfathomable. Men’s sports receive 96.3% of the airtime, women’s sports 1.6% and gender neutral topics were 2.1%. When you think back about twenty years ago and the coverage of media people tend to think that America is generally trending positively forward, however that is not the case for the coverage of women's athletics. It has actually gone down since then. Although on the scarce occasion that they are feature in the news, more often than not they are conveyed in the stereotypical way: as wives, girlfriends, or mothers. When media is highlighting these aspects instead of their talent, hard work or success it takes away from their image as an athlete and it demonstrating that it is acceptable to do so in society. However if male athlete achieved equal success and he was a father, that

Walker, N. A., & Bopp, T. (2011). The underrepresentation of women in the male-dominated sport workplace: Perspectives of female coaches. Journal of Workplace Rights, 15(1),

The article “Who Gets to Call the game?” by Doug Glanville covers a wide array of subjects with its overall message being on whether Jessica Mendoza or females in general especially those of color were given validity or even accepted by males to commentate on baseball games. Doug Glanville makes numerous points as to why women such as Jessica Mendoza do have the validity however they are not accepted by most men as Jessica could not start a sentence with “When I played for the Chicago Cubs...”, or how Jessica knows nothing and it would be like watching a game with a girlfriend who has no idea what was going on, women being given awards on baseball journalism, and how men who never played the game weren’t judged as harshly. A lot of men may feel that since Jessica mendoza or another female would not have much validity or be able to speak on a team’s actions whether during a game or off the field as she never played baseball and having no firsthand experience albeit the fact that she has numerous medals from the olympics in softball. Social media could most likely be responsible or at least contributing to the stigma that females don’t know what’s going on during a sports game or how the don’t understand how the game works. Glanville appears to be trying rather

Sport media is no different from any other profession. There is gender bias in this field. Due to sexism, it makes it hard for women to even enter into the career path they desire most. There are many factors when it comes to gender bias, especially in sport media. Women are at a disadvantage in the field of sport media. Before 1978, female reporters were not allowed to interview players in the locker room before and after games (Clapp). It was not until 1978, when a female reporter decided enough was enough. In 1978, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke sued the New York Yankees for banning her from entering the locker room to interview players during the 1977 World Series (Clapp). This case went to federal court and the judge decided that banning female reporters violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Clapp). The Equal Protection Clause demands that the states “must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances” (LII Staff). Since women reporters were not allowed in locker rooms and men were, then this was a direct violation because women and male reporters were in the locker rooms for the same reasons. In the business of sport and as a sport manager, women being treated unfairly in sport media is something that needs to be addressed by fining and suspending those coaches, players and anybody involved with a sport organization who make sexist remarks toward women

Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World Cup

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

Before I conducted this media analysis about women in sports and sport broadcasting, I hypothesized the obvious - that more male sports would be in the media, and that there would be more male sports broadcasters as well. Through my observations I did find that the sports arena and sports broadcasting sphere are male dominated. However, I also found that although there are not many stories about women, there has been a steady progression and magazines like Sports Illustrated are becoming bold enough to highlight women athletes in a magazine that is targeted towards a male audience. Although women still have a long way to go, they are making some headway into the male-dominated sports arena.

Women covering the whole spectrum and levels of sports face similar challenges despite their best efforts. According to Matolli, “I am not saying you should never meet or talk with a source outside of the workplace...But you have got to constantly demonstrate that you are there to do a job.” The boundaries of professionalism are easily stretched. This too has led to court appearances. Players inappropriately contacting reporters after hours or making crude remarks during interviews, or after, about the reporter, show that there is still a long ways to go when it comes to sports reporting. This behavior isn’t limited to players or coaches; it can also be found on social media. Comment sections (while generally rough, no matter who is involved) on pieces published by women tend to degrade their opinion simply because of who wrote the articles. These women are also mocked on various social medias simply for having an opinion on simple things such as the Bears 3-4 defense or the Cubs starting line-up. Women face hatred in person and online because of who they are and the profession they have

Still, many women find themselves in the place of Ponder. Some don’t feel the sacrifices of family and time are worth their positions, which are normally short-lived and not as desired as the beats men typically work. Marie Hardin’s and Stacie Shain’s article “Female Sports Journalists: Are We There Yet? ‘No’” discussed many of the reasons why a woman covering sports shouldn’t seem unnatural in today’s society. They, however, acknowledged that a majority of sports desks in newsrooms operate without women.

From the three network affiliates they studied, they found that 96.3 percent of the coverage was for men’s sports and women only received 1.6 percent (Messner and Cooky 4). When analyzing the coverage of Sports Center, which is arguably the most popular sports show on television, they found that women still only received just 1.4 percent of their coverage (4). This study also found that 100 percent of the Sports Center programs had a lead story that was about men’s sports (4). Even the most renowned and credible sports show, which only shows sports all year long, does not even provide women’s sports with equal attention. Even more shocking than this was that the study also revealed that reporters devoted more coverage to men’s sports that were out of season than they did women’s sports that were actually in season (4). This can be extremely disrespectful to female athletes when their sport is pushed aside and ignored so that a men’s sport that is not even being played can be covered by the media. These women put all their effort into performing their sport at the highest level, but their media attention gets replaced by men who are in their off-season.

During this century women have been able to break out of the traditional female mold. Women have broken the chains that bond them to the home and have emerged into all sorts of male dominated arenas, including sports. Women have become athletes in their own right. In the last ten years there has been validation for the female athlete. The WNBA was created giving women a professional league in a mainstream traditionally male sport for the first time since the All American Girls Professional Baseball League went out of existence in the 1950s. And recently a woman made the cut and participated on the professional golf circuit with the men. Today, we see women athletes in the media regularly. Women's college basketball is given airtime on weekends just as men's is.

Similarly women are receiving less attention and media coverage than men. When someone puts on the television and turns on a sports game, it is most likely going to be a men’s sport. Even when females get their coverage, the commentators are usually talking about their body rather than their skill. In an article, “Examination of Gender Equality and Female Participation in Sport” by Joshua A. Senne, he talks about how women are referred by their appearance rather than their skill. During a study about the media, the commentators mostly talked about the women’s hair, make-up, and body figure, rather than their ability. This also occurred after the 1996 summer Olympics, where there was a lack of promotion for female athletes and the marketing of women’s sports. These athletes were also only recognized by their physical appearance instead of their ability. The tone of these broadcasters was proved in a study that men 's events were the standard in the society rather than the women’s. They would list the event as “other” rather than saying it is a women’s sport. In the study that was conducted, it states that the gender marketing showed that the woman sports were marked as “other” on an average of 27.5 times, but it 's never happened in the men’s sporting events (Senne). There is still coverage of women 's sports, but it rarely covered. The title IX project made a pie chart about the comparison of men’s and women’s sports media coverage on the show SportsCenter on