I like sports. I may not consider myself a sports guru or an aspiring ESPN anchor, but I do enjoy watching games and joining in on the Super Bowl/ World Series excitement that surrounds the TV in my house when it’s that time of year. So, this semester I decided to put my sports skills and knowledge to the test by enrolling in JOUR 590, Sports Journalism, in the hopes that I would learn a thing or two about the world of reporting, the world of journalism, and maybe sharpen up on my side-line, post-game lingo. I have learned a thing or two about the games and the business of sports, but I also learned a little about our society too.
One of the assignments for this class was to cover a game on campus. But when I went to cover my first game, and I attempted to gather my game day footage and post game interviews, I found myself silently suffering from the sneers and stares of coaches, teammates, and fans who seemed to be confused as to why a female with long brown hair and a poised and polite essence was carrying around a camera that weighs almost as much as her and a notebook with key facts about the game.
This female was I, and in this moment, I experienced the disrespect and derision that many other female sports reporters face. But it was not until my conversation with renowned female sports journalist Alicia Jessop, that I realized my experience at this volleyball game is a real and recurring issue in the world of sports journalism.
“I think because of the differences in gender, no matter how far we get in terms of being progressive, there will always be some sort of fascination or curiosity with women being in the locker room,” said Jessop. “I think, as female reporters, you have to learn how to play the game.”
So what exactly is this game they speak of?
History of Female Sports Journalist and Access
Well “the game” has has been played by women since 1975 when Robin Herman and Marcel St. Cyr were the first female reporters to ever be allowed in the men’s locker room, during their coverage coverage of the 1975 NHL All Star Game.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m not the story; the game is the story,’” Herman told The New York Times, while reminiscing on the event. “But of course that wasn’t the case. The game was boring. A girl in the locker room was a story.”
Robin and Marcel were the first to walk through the door, but the woman who made headlines in the world of female sports reporting is Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludkte in 1977, when The New York Times brought a lawsuit upon The New York Yankees for their refusal to allow Lukdte entry into the players’ clubhouse for pre- and post-game interviews. The lawsuit also addressed the fact that female sports journalists are at a “severe competitive disadvantage” when it comes to reporting on male sport.
“Being in the national spotlight was difficult and a little scary, but I was very determined that this had to happen, not for me personally, but for all the young women who wanted to get into this profession,” Ludkte told The New York Times. “We understood the importance this held.”
Just before the 1978 World Series was about to begin, U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley ruled in favor of Ludtke and the New York Times. The MLB then attempted to appeal the court’s ruling, but the decision was upheld.
“It increased enormously the number of young women who came into sports media — as reporters, as employees of sports teams and league offices, in agencies representing athletes and in other aspects of sports work that earlier generations of women had not been involved with, such as working as team trainers or as umpires,” Ludkte told the Journalism and Women Symposium.
Solution
Gaining access to the male locker was certainly a step in the right direction for female sports reporter. And having the judge acknowledge the issue, that women in this field have a more difficult time acquiring the same information as their male counterparts, was another point in our book. But this still does not change the way society, players, and coaches perceive female sports journalists.
“To be heard in this industry, you have to get a little uncomfortable and you have to be aggressive. You have to interpret people sometimes. You have to step on people’s toes,” said Jessop. “And I think that is something that is not really natural for some women because it goes against our biology and how we’re programmed socially.”
“As a woman asking a question to a player who is not dressed, you’re going to get a different response than your male colleague asking that question while the male player is undressed,” said Jessop. “That’s just how it is.”
Jessop says that women have to continue competing with their male colleagues and practice good journalism skills until society can learn to judge a female reporter by their work, and not by their gender, race, background, etc. Other female sports reporters would agree, and would add that in order to achieve greater strides, we have to have a larger pact fighting this fight.
“There are just not enough women at the table making decisions,” said sports journalist Maggie Hendricks in her USA Today interview. “Hire women. Hire women. Pay them well. And then hire more women is the best insight I can give.”
So, is the best way to combat this negative preconception of women in sports journalism to add more women to the mix and throw them to the wolves in the hopes that society will accept them? Or is it to continue pushing our way to the front of the media and raising our hands to ask the first question, until society can just learn to take gender out of the equation?
“My gender in the locker room shouldn’t matter because I should be able to shed that discomfort on my own and figure out a way to fill the relationship with whoever I am speaking to in this very bizarre environment to get the best response to relay to my readers,” said Jessop. “And that takes practice.”
In my opinion, the problem is not the women, the sport, or journalism. The problem is society and our systematic structures that hold preconceived notions of how women are supposed to act and what we should be allowed and not allowed to do.
I hate to break to you all, but America is based off a patriarchy. And just like many of the other ideals we are based on, like free speech and freedom of religion, etc., this one still hold a firm grasp on many of the individuals in our society today.
So until women are able to receive the equal rights, equal representation in the media and in the government, and equal pay (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel is still sitting on the Paycheck Fairness Act) they deserve, we can’t keep throwing women into the mix only to be chewed up and spit back out over, and over, and over again by society and its ancient ideals. It is time we change the structure of this system. And more importantly, it’s time we change society and its perception women.
Madison Nichols completed the reporting and writing for this story under the supervision of Dr. Ken Waters in Jour 590: Sports Reporting in Fall 2019.
