Breaking Down Barriers, One Broadcast at a Time
- Hailey Womer
- Feb 25, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2020
Photo by Vanilla Bear Films on Unsplash
On March 8th, the world will celebrate a very important day in the advancement of women’s rights. Not only will International Women’s Day and all of its normal festivities be celebrated, but also the first ever all-female crew to broadcast and produce a NHL hockey game.
The match-up between the St.Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks will feature play-by-play analyst Kate Ryan, U.S. Olympic Gold Medalists Kendall Coyne-Schofield and AJ Mleckzo, and sportscaster Kathryn Tappan. The game will also be produced and directed by Rene Hatlelid and Lisa Seltzer.
Just a few weeks ago, I was able to experience a similar experience close to home when the ACC Network fielded its first ever all-women production team for the Syracuse vs. Georgia Tech women’s basketball game. While these momentous occasions demonstrate the improvement and advancement of women in the sports industry, it also demonstrates how long it has taken us to get to this point.
“I’ve been broadcasting for 17 years, and yet, the very first broadcast I did with a female producer was just two years ago,” said host Kathryn Tappen when discussing the upcoming NHL broadcast with Deadline.
As a woman, die-hard sports fan, and future communications professional in the industry, it is difficult to wrap my brain around why these seemingly simple steps towards equality are so few and far between. However, I have realized that there are several different elements that work together to challenge females in the sports industry and create obstacles for advancement.
According to a study done by the Women’s Media Center, only 10% of all female reporters are sports journalists, translating to only about 500 women in sports radio and television. While these statistics have improved since this study was conducted, the results are still far from equal.
On top of the low employment statistics compared to men in the industry, women who are lucky enough to be hired often face sexism and harassment on a daily basis. When I think of harassment in the workplace, my mind immediately thinks of the viral video of a runner at a highly televised race slapping the backside of an innocent reporter as he runs by. That video sticks with me because if female communicators are experiencing such overt sexism as seen in that video, how much more are women dealing with behind the closed doors of major companies?
Another major hurdle, one that I think causes the greatest impact for women in the industry, is the overall level of sexism and lack of respect from colleagues, players and fans.
“The difference is [for women] it can be very nasty and vile and goes into sexually derogatory insults. It goes into a place men never have to deal with,” Dana O’Neil, senior writer for ESPN.com, told WorkInSports. “It’s not about sports. It’s not about writing. It’s about your gender and how I can demean you and make you feel worthless because of your gender.”
When doing research on sexism in the industry, I was perturbed by a video I came across made by ABC News that resembled Jimmy Kimmel’s “reading mean tweets” bit. However, it was men reading the tweets written by other men directed at two female sports reporters. Some of the tweets not only discredited the reporters, but also went as far as calling them derogatory names, wishing sexual assault upon the women and spouting death threats.
It is these types of comments and perspectives about females in the sports industry that perpetuate the toxic culture that we are currently faced with. It is disheartening knowing I may very well face many of these challenges in my professional career, but it is also motivating me to continue to research and challenge current practices.
In writing this post, I wanted to not only celebrate the steps we’ve made toward equality, but also acknowledge and discuss where the industry still falls short. These all-female broadcasts are huge steps in the right direction, and I am looking forward to even more change (hopefully) in the very near future.
Growing up I had 5 older guy cousins so many family events included watching football or basketball or hockey all day long. While I did not pick up much sports knowledge from these hours of watching sports broadcasting, I did always notice the lack of female representation in reporting. As a young kid who was only watching this programming because my male cousins put it on I just assumed it made sense that sports was a guy thing and guys would be the ones to report on it. However, as I got older my inner feminist grew and I know women can do anything men can do! With that in mind, I really enjoyed your blog post. You included many…
Hailey -- as a woman studying both business and communications, I think about these kind of issues often. When you are a woman in these fields, it feels as though it is not good enough to just "be good", but rather that women are in their own separate category that makes them "good for a girl". I will never understand why we all just can't be in the same category. I also remember when the video of the man slapping the woman reporter's butt while running came out, and I felt second hand embarrassment for her. Imagine doing your job you are paid to do and someone outwardly sexually assaulting you live on camera. I was floored about just how…