Last Updated: March 27, 2000
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Women in sports
Observations
On numbers and beats
Julie Ward, deputy managing editor in sports, USA Today: “We
had nowhere to go but up considering where we started 25 years ago. The
number of women in sports departments has increased, especially at large
and mid-sized papers. At these papers, women are generally found in a wide
range of positions from editors, reporters, designers and copy editors.
... Where are the women on major beats? ... There are too few women covering
the NFL, NHL, NBA and baseball. There seem to be a lot of women assigned
to doing takeouts, the Olympics, motor sports and tennis.”
Marsha Bosley, assistant sports editor, The Orange County Register,
Santa Ana, Calif.: “My impression, nationally, is that department-wide
representation is better and broader, with women covering major professional
and college sports, working all facets of the desk and supervising writers
and copy editors. One exception is the lingering deficiency of female (NFL
and baseball) beat writers. ... (Our own) sports staff had five or six
full-time female reporters earlier in the ’90s. Today it’s three, and no
columnists, an area where I’ve seen little improvement industry-wide.”
Molly Dunham, assistant managing editor, The Sun, Baltimore: “Major
League Baseball is the one beat women can’t seem to crack. The writers’
fraternity in baseball is tighter than the networks in other sports. It’s
tough to break in as a young, white male, much less as a female or minority.
When a paper has an opening for a baseball beat writer, the same names
tend to circulate, and most are young, white males at smaller papers who
have covered a major league team for at least a couple of years... The
same is true, to a lesser extent, on the NFL beat. There are more women
covering the NBA and NHL as well as the major college beats.”
Kim Pendery, sports editor, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: “Certainly
there are more women in sports departments than there were, say, 10 years
ago. But my sense is that the majority of women are in low- to mid-level
positions. I don’t think there are more women sports editors and women
sports columnists than there were 10 years ago. Those are key roles, people
who make a significant difference either through their voice or by determining
the content of a paper.”
Teri Boggess, assistant sports editor, The News & Observer, Raleigh,
N.C.: “On our staff of 25 full-timers, we have five women — the sports
editor, one of three assistant sports editors, two of eight copy editors
... and one of 13 writers. ... Numbers-wise our department is a lot better
than we were five years ago, but we still do not have a local female voice
on our writing staff.”
Jill Agostino, an editor in sports, The New York Times: “I think
women are now represented well on beats, and not just pigeonholed into
women’s sports. I think we can still do better, but looking at where we
are now as compared to 10 years ago, I’d say we’ve made terrific progress.
At The Times, the Knicks and Jets beat writers are women. One of our deputy
sports editors is a woman as is a general-assignment writer. We have two
women in the backfield and two women on the copy desk, as well as one woman
on layout. Percentage-wise, it’s not that good, but Neil Amdur, the sports
editor, is constantly looking to hire good women.”
Terry Taylor, Associated Press sports editor: “I think
we’re well on our way in sports to looking past gender and judging us as
professionals —are we fair, accurate, knowledgeable? Isn’t it terrific
that no one gets jolted out of their seat any more when a woman walks into
a press conference or a press box or gives you the halftime update on TV?
Best of all, we dot the landscape far beyond the press box and predictable
beats. We’re in the sports editor’s office — managing and assigning. We’re
deputies and assistants and we cover everything from soccer to Super Bowl.
Yes, it took time, but we all knew it would. Women are thriving and excelling
in covering sports. And as long as that’s recognized and acknowledged,
promotion and advancement should follow. It has, and it will. Fingers crossed.”
On advancement of women
Molly Dunham, assistant managing editor, The Sun, Baltimore:
“We’re making incremental progress in getting more women in sports management
...As the first and second waves of female sports journalists hit their
40s, more management opportunities are materializing. I sometimes use my
experience as a way to try to sell young women on copy editing. If you
want to shape coverage and have a hand in determining the future of sports
coverage, you can have a lot more influence working on the inside of the
department.”
Julie Ward, deputy managing editor in sports, USA Today: “For
some, moving inside or being inside is a lifestyle decision. Women in sports
departments, like women in other professions, still bear much in the way
of family responsibilities. For women in sports departments, advancement
overall has been incredibly slow.”
Celeste Williams, sports editor, Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram:
“As the person running the AWSM Job Bank, I can tell you that women
writers, editors and management types are in big demand. We have great
jobs on the Web site right now and not enough folks to fill them ... There’s
a need for good women sports journalists and not enough women to fill those
vacancies. I think it’s up to sports editors to be vigilant in recruiting
young women straight out of college and developing them into writers, desk
people and, hopefully and eventually, assistant sports editors, deputies
and sports editors.”
Marsha Bosley, assistant sports editor, The Orange County Register,
Santa Ana, Calif.: “While there appear to be more female middle managers,
I sense that phenomenon has been slower in coming. Two of four assistant
sports editors at The Register are women, for example, but it took seven
years to get the second.”
Teri Boggess, assistant sports editor of The News & Observer,
Raleigh, N.C.: “While I’m very flattered by the calls I get asking
if I’d like to work for this paper or that, I worry because some papers
seem so desperate to hire a woman, any woman, just so they’ll have a woman
on the sports staff. Nobody benefits, though, if a paper desperate to make
a gender-based hire pushes a young woman into a job for which she is not
ready. (The same goes for other minority hires.) The bottom line: Numbers
appear to be up, but quantity hiring doesn’t equate to quality hiring if
the women end up being the lowest-paid, least-experienced on the staff
with the least input into sports department decisions.”
On lifestyle decisions
Teresa Rodriguez, former assistant sports editor, The Dallas Morning
News: “I quit the News full time after the birth of my daughter ...
and I’ve left the Sports Day management group all male and all white again.
... The newspaper beast in general makes it very difficult for women to
be managers and have a family life. In most cases a woman manager has to
make a choice — one or the other. The long days, the seven-day-a-week mentality,
the night hours, and the fact that most of the times holidays are the busiest
sports times of the year.”
Julie Engebrecht, sports editor, The Cincinnati Enquirer: “I’ve
worked in photo, biz, metro, sports and nowhere (else) is there the expectation
that everyone, including section editors, should just work and work and
work — days, nights, weekends, holidays ... Some of us, even at bigger
papers (I know I’m not alone in this), have to juggle multiple responsibilities:
being part of the management team, trying to move the section forward and
improve it, dealing with big events, handling daily staff meetings/coaching/
supervising reporters, responding to (readers) ... and then having to work
the desk ... I’m lucky because I work with an open-minded staff and,
despite our small size, feel surrounded by just great people... (My) baby
girl is due in April, hopefully after Opening Day and Final Four.”
On attitude
Jill Agostino, editor in sports, The New York Times: “Sometimes
the problems women have don’t start at the top. You hear about a slot person
who doesn’t like women and won’t let them handle the big stories or an
assistant who gives opportunities to men without giving the same opportunities
to women. That’s not coming from the top, but it’s coming from men who
are in positions of power. The boys’ club atmosphere still exists. We are,
perhaps, more able to point it out and have it acknowledged now, which
I think is the first step toward changing it.”
