Entering an area of sports reports never crossed my mind at a young age. A journalist never crossed the screen, and I have never heard a female voice.
The titles of the articles were not written by women and broadcast games were played by men. I never imagined a world where the words “I am a sports journalist” came out of my mouth. But now, at the age of 20, I can say that.
While I cross the graduation phase of Florida Atlantic University in May, the words on my diploma will read: Bachelor ès arts in multimedia journalism with a minor in sports studies.
I have the privilege of saying that I am the first woman editor that the university press has had. And I can’t even start to describe honor as a woman that the declaration brings.
The position granted me with the most incredible opportunities. When Basketball’s male chief coach John Jakus came for the first time to FAU, the former editor-in-chief of the UP JD Delcastillo, the director of the radio program Owl Maddox Greenburg and I were able to carry out his first interview on April 26, 2024.
I even spoke to Brandin Bryant, a former FAU football player who became author. By writing the article on his publication career, I had the privilege of interviewing a Disney animator. Another achievement was to go to the University of Florida Centrale (UCF) to cover their male basketball match against FAU on November 12, 2024.
Sports reports are much more than just covering a game. It is a question of learning the trips and stories of people who can be developed from athletics.
Writing, talking to people and hearing about their lives has always been one of my passion, and some ask me why I questioned my ability to enter this profession in the first place.
The simple answer to this question is the lack of women working in this area.
Depending on the statistics of ZippiaAn online database that used 30 million profiles in the United States, 20.9% of sports journalists are women and 79.1% are men, for 2021 statistics. In 2010, 80.13% of journalists were men and 19.87% women.
On September 22, 2021The racial media and gender media sports bulletin on Associated Press (APSE) sports publishers has evaluated more than 100 newspapers and websites, where they found that the overall note for hiring of the APSE genre has come to an F, which means that less than 25% of their staff are women. The Institute for Sports Diversity and Ethics at the University of Florida Centrale has led the report.
“While women experienced slight improvements in 2021, the overall recording of sports media to have women in important positions remains terrible. However, there was an increase in sports editors (10% to 16.7%), journalists (11.5% to 14.4%) and copy publishers (20.4% to 24.7%), “said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute and the main report.
Zippia statistics on ESPN demography Show that 33% of its employees are women and 67% are men.
“ESPN was a leader in the hiring of women and people of color in key positions. In fact, as we will see, if we had to remove ESPN from the date entirely, racial and gender percentages in several categories would drop considerably, “said Labchick in the report.
In addition, the UCF study revealed that ESPN employed 25% of sports publishers from all newspapers and websites reported.
After examining these statistics, it is obvious that the representation in this professional area is very much lacking. I cannot say that it is shocking that I am the first woman in sports editor that the university press had since birth in 1998.
This sub-statement presents to women mental battles. I cannot speak for everyone, but I know that, personally, I have the constant feeling that I need to prove me to others. I know I can do it, but why don’t they do it?
The feeling was born from the comments made over time. When the men asked what major I have, some of their answers to the answer were: “It is interesting that you have chosen something so masculine.” I even met writers in Fau who did not respect my position as editor and said that their knowledge of sports has exceeded mine.
My way to watch the sports is similar to any passionate observer, and growing up, I immediately found myself surrounded by athletics.
I credit my father for starting my trip to watch sport, especially football, which started like a simple way for me to spend time with him. Every Saturday had gone to watch university football and Sunday was dedicated to the National Football League (NFL).
Over time, I too found myself shouting on the screen like him and flourishing in a fan of the Lions of Detroit.
Although my passion for looking at sports has increased, questions too. Why don’t my friends share similar interest? Why are the members of my family surprised that I look at the sport? Why do I only hear male voices commenting on the games? Why is the emphasis on male sports? Don’t women do sport too?
It was difficult to deal with the severity of my questions, but with my knowledge today, the answers become clearer. And many of them take care of the difficulties that women have faced when they gain the right to simply practice competition sports.
In 1972, Title IXThe law prohibits discrimination based on sex in education, according to the American department of education, and has always changed the path of women in sport.
Before his approval, women were unable to participate in sports sanctioned by schools, which led to a lack of performance in competition sports, because female “sports” were only non -competitive and informal. After his death, women finally won the right to participate in competition sports, causing a cascade of other effects.
Title IX has paved the way for women through the United States to play sports. I will always be grateful for the law because it granted me the opportunity to start playing football at four years old. Then basketball in the third year and volleyball in the fourth year.
Without that, I could never have played for the volleyball team of my high school, and my heart goes to young girls who were deprived of this right 60 years ago.
But let’s talk for a moment about my basketball experience.
I wanted to play softball to be like my mother, but the YMCA did not have enough girls to register to make a team, so my options were to play basketball or not play a sport. Naturally, I wanted to continue with athletics, so I chose basketball.
What I did not know with this choice is that I became the only girl of an all-boom team. At eight years old, it didn’t seem like a big problem until we started playing games. They refused to pass the ball to me because they supposed that I would not be able to do it.
Halfway through the season, my trainer was forced to intervene in a dead time and to say to them: “Give it to Megan”. And when I did it, it was like a new cloud.
When I think back at that time, it is shocking that the memory is still standing out so clearly in my head, but it was the first time and, unfortunately, not the last that I faced with discrimination between the sexes on the field.
After this basketball season, I went to an All Girls team, but discrimination started again in the college gymnasium.
Once again, I was placed in a situation where I had to play sports with predominantly men and unfortunately a similar trend has occurred. They would choose the girls of the last for the teams, expect that we were not making efforts and lacked confidence with the ball in our hands. The situation was frustrating because it happened during the gym where the score did not really matter, however, I was not surprised this time.
While women began to play sport competitively in 1972, they also started reporting on professional athletics.
Phyllis George became the first sports woman in 1974 to work in a large television network. A year later, she won the co-host post of “The NFL Today” as a journalist and football broadcaster. But its history lacked sports reports. She won “Miss America” in 1971, which aroused controversy and criticism, according to a article In the New York Times by Richard Sandomir.
Sandomir wrote that George had answered criticism by saying that she knew a lot about sport, especially football.
“I come from Texas,” George told People magazine in 1967. “And there, you follow the Texas Longhorns and Dallas Cowboys where you don’t belong.”
The first journalists fought more than simple criticism. When they entered the workforce for the first time, it has become a problem with entry into the locker room. Some organizations had strict rules which prohibited women from entering the men’s locker rooms, which presented the question of interviews.
These journalists were invited to wait outside the locker room to conduct their interviews while the male journalists entered and managed to ask their questions freely. After the players answered men’s questions, they often did not want to go out and answer other questions from women, they were therefore forced to write pieces without quoted equipment.
Fortunately, today, there is no problem with women who have the possibility of earning quotes from athletes inside the locker room. Personally, I had no problem to speak with players and coaches because they hold their interviews in a media room.
Unfortunately, the criticism that women simply do not know enough about sport is still true today. And I must admit that I do not consider myself a sporting “nerd”. Although I do not know all the old players, or I can, at the top of my head, say all the university football coach, there are two things that I know that I can do well: report the facts and talk about it.
Statistics show that the representation of women working in sports reports or edition has improved in the last decade. Over the next 10 years, my wish is an additional improvement of five percent.
If you are passionate about a job, anyway, go for it. I love what I learned about sports journalism here in FAU and it gave me the opportunity to meet such incredible people on a daily basis.
To all the women who plan to take the plunge, do it. Let no statistics hold back and continue to be the first to occupy a role.