Women In Sports Research Paper

Women Reporters in Sports There are many well renowned sports reporters of the media today. Chris Berman, John Anderson, Michelle Bonner, Scott Van Pelt, and Ines Sainz are only a few of these well known reporters. Surprisingly enough, a mere thirty years ago, this list would only include men’s names. Society has changed throughout the years thanks to cultural shifts brought about by the feminist movement of the 1970s, woman have made advancements in television broadcasting in general and sports broadcasting in particular. Also women reporters are getting the chance to shine like these men have. It has not been an easy path, though. Women reporters were not always accepted into the media based world. Women reporters have now established
In 1987, Paola Bovin was given the assignment to interview Terry Pendleton, an infielder of the St. Louis Cardinals. Instantly, snide remarks were thrown out at her. One player asked, “Are you here to interview somebody or to look at a bunch of guys?” Immediately after that comment, a jockstrap landed right on top of her head. She had to conclude the interview with Pendleton outside in the hallway, rather than where she originally had planned. She was interviewed about her personal experience and when she was asked about what had happened, she responded, “and so I immediately, being my first experience with that, I quickly turned around and ran out of the clubhouse”(Nation, Of The). When asked what she had learned from her experience, she added that, “you know, honestly, it was a little bit of a mixed reaction for me. But my primary reaction was, you know, this is harassment in the workplace. Media is different these days, with Twitter, with Facebook, with, you know, Access Hollywood appearing at the Super Bowl. It looks different. It sounds different. It’s not the sports journalism I grew up with. But it doesn’t meant that the people involved shouldn’t be treated fairly and equally” (Nation, Of The). Boivin sums this up well when trying to reiterate her experiences in the locker room. Yes, at times, women are given chances and opportunities, but with the
An example came up with something similar to this testing in 2003 when ABC hired a woman by the name of Lisa Guerrero as a sideline reporter. Guerrero had had a good background in sports reporting, but some doubted her talents in doing the play by play. After giving Lisa a chance to shine in the booth the media actually nationally criticized her by saying “Guerrero’s lack of experience was overlooked because of her television looks. (White) Would they ever say this kind of things to a man? Guerrero was replaced by a man in only one year. Even with these woman constantly getting put down, and shunned out of the spotlight in the sports media careers what really is impressive is right now there is still woman working hard to somehow get the opportunity Guerrero had. Women say that the job is still satisfying enough to take over a sometimes hostile workplace. “Women really are interested in the sports that they are covering but still are not fully accepted” says Marie Hardin an assistant professor of communications at Penn State. (Penn State Live). These woman face discrimination on a pretty routine basis and a lot of it comes from some colleagues and mostly fan that still just believe a woman is unqualified to cover