Last Updated: March 27, 2000
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Women in sports
Opening minds harder than opening doors
Although some still refuse to see, women have made
great progress in sports journalism over the years
By Tracy Dodds
Just when it seems safe to drop your guard, there’s Andy Rooney on one
of the TVs behind the sports layout desk, doing his “60 Minutes” thing
on jobs women shouldn’t do.
And there’s a shot of Mary Schmitt Boyer interviewing a player in the
Cleveland Cavaliers locker room while Rooney’s voiceover whines about it.
Have women not made any progress in this field?
Of course, there’s been progress.
Thirty years ago, Schmitt Boyer would not have had that job.
Twenty-five years ago, she would have been standing in the hallway while
her competitors got first shot at the players.
Twenty years ago, she’d have been allowed in the locker room, but would
have gotten nothing but static from most of the players.
Ten years ago, she would have been in the locker room getting interviews,
but when she found herself in the uncomfortable position of being pictured
as a woman doing something women shouldn’t do, she would have found very
sketchy support in her own office.
Now she calls her desk at The Plain Dealer to rant: “Did you see that?
I thought we were past that!”
And the phone is picked up by an associate sports editor who’s been
there, who was one of the women standing in NBA arena hallways 25 years
ago.
She hears in the background the disbelieving comments of one woman who’s
laying out pages, another who’s editing copy and another who’s editing
sports photos.
And what she hears from the men working the sports desk at The Plain
Dealer on this particular Sunday night is equally supportive.
A staff like that doesn’t materialize by chance. It has to be built
by design by editors who understand that diversity makes a section stronger.
And, yes, in the world of sports journalism women are still a minority
— not keeping pace with the women who read our sports sections.
The sports editor in Cleveland, Roy Hewitt, has long been known as an
editor who is sincere in his efforts to go beyond a token hire, to continue
to recruit, promote, and, most important, support women in sports. He is
not the only one. There are a handful of others.
But we can still name them.
Because it always has been difficult to pin down numbers when we are
asked about women sports reporters, women sports editors, women on sports
desks, we have measured progress by whether we can name them while ticking
them off on our fingers or whether we need a directory.
Before we deplore the small percentages of women in sports journalism
at the end of 1999, it’s important to realize that women were virtually
non-existent in the field until early in the 1970s.
Those of us covering sports then could name the others. By the time
about 30 of us gathered in Oakland to establish the Association for Women
in Sports Media in 1988, we needed a directory.
Within just a couple of years the directory held the names of hundreds
of women writing and editing sports.
But we could name the women who were sports editors and sports columnists.
That made sense. It took a decade or so for women to have the experience
to be qualified for those positions.
In perspective, we have gone from nowhere to numbering in the hundreds
in what could be measured as the lifespan of one career.
And with the help of AWSM’S job bank, internship program and annual
convention, we have been able to continue to grow in number — numbers that
are concentrated at the big newspapers and sprinkled sparingly at the smaller
papers.
It is troubling, though, to see that when it comes to sports editors,
sports columnists and women on key pro beats, we can still name them.
The hundreds of women in sports journalism are not making steady progress
into positions of influence.
Why is that?
Track the issues. In the beginning, each of us had to expend total effort
into getting the job and proving that women could, indeed, do the job.
We had to campaign for equal access.
Then we had to deal with harassment with so many young women so isolated
among men. Some of that continues.
Then it was the cool, unwelcome reception, as more women began to compete
for inside jobs. That continues.
Now we have begun to lose talented, experienced women. Some because
they matured beyond taking satisfaction in the relentless hostile battle,
some because they came to realize that they could make more money for many
fewer hours and much less flak in another field and some because they wanted
families.
Men, too, struggle with the long hours, the bad hours, the travel, the
pressure, but our society as a whole continues to respect and support men
who put job before family. Women aren’t supposed to do that.
It is not possible to separate the attitudes that block progress for
women within our business from the attitudes that still exist everywhere
toward women crossing the line into men’s territory.
Attitudes change very, very slowly.
Some excerpts from a letter sent to Carolina Panthers beat reporter
Viv Bernstein of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., recently:
Women, even writers as accomplished as you, should not write commentaries
on male behavior in sport. I say that for a couple of reasons:
A.) You don’t possess the same level of testosterone as men. You
can’t understand the urge to destroy your opponent in every way, including
emotionally. Because women tend to want to allow their opponents to ‘save
face,’ you would never make a gesture such as the throat slash that would
signify total and utter destruction of your opponent. It also indicates
that the opponent is hopelessly unable to retaliate. As a female, you cannot
understand the satisfaction of being the dominant male in a confrontation.
B.) Women allow their emotions to get in the way of facts when presenting
an argument. In a domestic disagreement that may be acceptable. There is
no place for it in sports commentary. You said that the throat-slashing
gesture is the kind of violence that O.J. Simpson was accused of committing.
And you added that according to one report, some have taken to calling
the gesture “the O.J.”
Although many women remain distraught about the O.J. verdict, the
fact remains that he was found innocent of the crimes in a court of law.
Therefore, bringing up his name in this argument is a cheap shot that a
male writer would have avoided...
I am impressed by your ability to put words on paper in an entertaining
fashion, but I think that you should admit that trying to comment on the
NFL is not “woman’s work.” You simply don’t have the proper frame of reference
to do it justice. I do admire your skill, but I think it would be better
used covering the Women’s World Cup or the WNBA. No offense, but leave
the NFL to the guys.”
Most papers do leave the NFL to the guys. And it’s because of the attitude
outlined in this letter.
Open locker rooms and open minds do not come as a package deal.
Dodds is associate sports editor at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
She is a past president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and
the current president of the Associated Press Sports Editors.
