As a journalism major and sports fanatic, it has been assumed that I’ll go into sports broadcasting because I’ve been told I have “the face for it.” Yes, I am a woman, and no, I don’t want to be at a job solely based on appearance.
Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate this attempt at a compliment, but a comment on my looks should be irrelevant, especially once I mention my disinterest in broadcast. This is not to say women in the field are not highly experienced journalists, but there is surely a difference between the hiring processes of a man and a woman. While men are valued for their knowledge and experience with sports, in more cases than not, a woman is first valued for her appearance and then for her credentials.
Why is that? Is it because, from a young age, women were not included in “boy’s club sports talk” and are therefore seen as less educated?
Or maybe it is because there is an unwritten rule that the person covering the sport must have played it, and women have not had the opportunity to compete in major sports leagues.
The misogyny in sports media is not, and has never been, especially covert; any woman working as an anchor, sideline reporter, host, etc. is bound to face opposition, mainly because we have been seen as an anomaly. While looks are naturally overemphasized for TV, for a woman, they are a nonstop topic of concern and conversation. Even an experienced sports journalist like Fox’s sideline reporter Pam Oliver has commented that she believes her sideline gig has been turned over to Erin Andrews because she is aging out of the position. In an interview with nypost.com, Oliver commented, “As one executive said to me, Fox Sports will look radically different in the coming years. I assume that means they want to look younger. It’s not difficult to notice that the new on-air people there are all young, blonde and ‘hot.’” But while the weight that looks hold on the position of women in sports media has always been a constant issue, it is really just the tip of the iceberg.
In a Sports Illustrated column by senior editor Richard Deitsch, he wrote that “six highly accomplished and respected women in the sports media” were brought together in an “email roundtable” to discuss some of the issues they have faced, and are currently facing, in the world of sports media. Despite these women’s years of experience, they are still having to deal with misogynistic coworkers and viewers.
Over the past five years, the dearth of women on sports networks and in sports writing has definitely taken a turn for the best; however, resistance is still apparent. In this column, the journalists answered questions like “How much sexism exists today in the sports media?” and “Why do we not see women in their 50s, 60s and 70s in sports television as we do men of that age?” Their anecdotes were astonishing. While some of them talked about the ever-so-clever “stay in the kitchen” comments that they have received, many touched on the frustrating reality of the double standard that is apparent between men and women: “If a man makes a mistake, he misspoke. If a woman errs, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” said Andrea Kremer, NFL Network chief correspondent for Player Health and Safety and a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports.
While pulling the gender card may seem cliche, these journalists are not looking for an audience to feel bad for them. In fact, The MMQB.com and Sports Illustrated NFL writer Jenny Vrentas comments on how the subject of female journalists not being in powerful positions in sports media is seldom talked about. She notes that “we want people in hiring positions to give women opportunities, but it also stings your pride to wonder if you were given an opportunity because you are a woman.”
However, despite the hurdles that women in sports media have had to overcome, “there are more women employed in the sports media than ever,” Kremer told Sports Illustrated. Though the rise in female sports media journalist is noticeable, we come back to the frustrating question of what aspect is a woman really being hired for. “I don’t think [women employed in the sports media] are viewed as such an anomaly anymore, but there are times it feels like women are token hires and not there based on knowledge and ability,” Kremer said.
Tess Sheets can be reached at tess.sheets@theminaretonline.com