The Invisible Woman: Female Sports Journalists in the Workplace

Abstract

This research explores the experiences of women journalists working in sports, focusing on four areas of potential problems: condescension in the workplace, equal opportunity in the workplace, perceived performance, and job satisfaction. The results of the study indicate that although females are appearing in sports newsrooms across the nation in increasing numbers, women feel they are, in many ways, invisible to their colleagues, expected to know less and accept more menial assignments, while being the target of sexist language. In spite of the dism'mination, approximately three-fourths of the respondents said that they are satisfied with their jobs.Research suggests that women are appearing in sports newsrooms across the nation in increasing numbers. However, even though their numbers are growing, once they are on the payroll, female sports reporters say that they are, for all practical purposes, ignored.Little has been documented in scholarly journals about the women who are moving into this traditionally male-dominated field. One 1990 regional study that focused on sportswriters' attitudes about their profession did not identify race or gender.' Studies that have focused on female journalists working as sports reporters are now dated2 or were regional in scope? While some publications have examined problems of women journalistsin general: most targeted research during the past decade has focused on females working in a particular mediumS or, more recently, of a specific race.6 Very little research has paralleled the experiences of females working as sports journalists.The assumption has been made that since their numbers are increasing, women are steadily gaining acceptance in the sports journalism arena.' However, despite their increasing numbers, some women are still running into road blocks as they attempt to do their jobs and move up the career ladder? As recently as 1989, when equal access to locker rooms was supposedly no longer an issue, Houston Post sports reporter Melanie Hauser, who covered Southwest Conference football, said, "Sometimes their idea of equal access is women standing outside while men go in."In that 1990 study, the six female respondents, all of whom worked in sports departments of major daily newspapers in the Southwestern United States, reported that they were given less desirable assignments, that they often had trouble being taken seriously, and that they were continuing to fight battles for equal access to locker room interviews. lo The results of that Phyllis Miller is an associate professor in the Department of 1ournalism at the U n h m i t y of Arkansas, and Randy Miller is an assistant professor in the School of Mass Communication at the University ofSouth Florida. I&MCQuar&rIy Val. %No. 4 Winter 1995 811u189 S199SWC THE 1 N v l S l~ WOMAN F W SFORTS]OWwAus7r; LN THE WORKPlACE 883

The Current State of Women Print Journalists: An Analysis of the Status and Careers of Females in Newspapers Sports Departments

“…The opened doors came with a price, however, as females encountered harassment from athletes, team management, and male sports reporters who felt inconvenienced by their presence (Walsh-Childers et al, 1996;Cann and Mohr, 2001;Padgett, 1998;Kane and Disch, 1993;Miller and Miller, 1995;Eberhard and Myers, 1998). Although instances of harassment appear to be less frequent, there have been reports of some female sports journalists still fighting for acceptance, credibility, and equal pay while enduring greater criticism than their male counterparts (Allum, 2002;Michaelis, 2001;Miller and Miller, 1995;Smith, 2000). An example of such discrimination is illustrated by one female sports journalist who commented that, ''the state of women in journalism today is one of those half-full, half-empty things.…”

“…Even though women's participation in athletics has dramatically increased over the past 30 years, females remain underrepresented in administrative roles within athletic departments and professional sport and recreation organizations (Humms et al, 1996;Arnold and Shinew, 1997). In the past, this pattern has held true for female sports journalists who work in the mostly male-dominated sports media (Eberhard and Myers, 1998;Miller and Miller, 1995;Salwen and Garrison, 1998;Hertz, 2000).…”

“…Only limited research, however, has focused on other aspects of women in the sports media and even fewer studies have focused specifically on the job status of female sports reporters (Ordman and Zillmann, 2000;Miller and Miller, 1995;Ordman and Zillman, 1994). Thus, the purpose of this study was to update the literature on women sport journalists and to examine their current state within the sports departments at newspapers across the nation.…”

As jornalistas de desporto em Portugal: minoritárias e com pouco poder

“…"Infelizmente, excetuando alguns esforços feministas no jornalismo de revistas, o padrão das notícias desportivas na nossa cultura foi e permanece o desporto masculino" (Creedon, 1994: 21). Miller & Miller (1995) referem que apesar de as mulheres surgirem mais 4. http://whomakesthenews.org/ 5. www.playthegame.org/theme-pages/the-international-sports-press-survey/ frequentemente nas redações de desporto, assim que aparecem nas folhas de vencimento elas são ignoradas e designam o mundo do jornalismo de desporto como sendo tradicionalmente masculino e dominado pelos homens (1995): "Apesar dos seus números crescentes, algumas mulheres ainda enfrentam bloqueios enquanto tentam fazer o seu trabalho e subir na carreira" (Miller & Miller, 1995: 883). Onze anos depois, Raymond Boyle refere que nos Estados Unidos da América as mulheres jornalistas de desporto enfrentam "preconceito e hostilidade", ainda que existam na história do Jornalismo do país algumas mulheres proeminentes e que se assumiram como exemplos a seguir para mulheres aspirantes a jornalistas (Boyle, 2006).…”

Re-establishing the ‘outsiders’: English press coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup

“…Whereas this points to the need for greater gender diversity in sports journalism, a widely acknowledged conclusion (Hardin and Shain, 2006;Miller and Miller, 1995), it is our contention that attempts to build and, in many instances, rediscover the history of women's football can help to challenge established cultural representations that draw exclusively from the history of the men's game. As highlighted in this article, while the development of women's football was stunted in 1921, preceding this, the women's game reveals an illustrious history contiguous with public efforts to support British troops during the…”