Women in Sports Journalism

Troy Maychuk
Sports Journalism and Society
10-10-13
                                                        This is a man's world? 
        Even today in the year 2013 the idea of a female sports writer seems cliche to a lot of people. In fact, women make up a very low population of workers in the Sports Media industry. In a study done out of fifty major newspapers only eleven percent are female. I honestly never really took the time to think about this idea much before we discussed it in class. I was startled to find such a huge imbalance!
         Joanne Gerstner, president of the Association for Women in Sports Media wrote,
"You look different, you are different, and you might not fit into the paradigm of how that editor feels his paper should look. I've had members tell me stories of applying for editors or columnists, only to be told that the paper wasn't 'ready' to have a woman in that position". The open discourse shown towards women in the Sports Media industry is astounding, the fact that male counterparts feel threatened by powerful and intelligent women is so childish- if anything at all men should see this as an opportunity to  step their game up. It seems to me that a small number of women are tolerated in this industry, but without a doubt not integrated well. Women have to deal with being sexually harassed all the while being stifled from really excelling in the workplace. 
       Many women leave the industry due to the frustrations of not being able to grow because of their job ceiling. Why sacrifice time from your friends and family if you aren't properly respected? 
A much greater focus must be placed on retention of female employees if anything is expected to change.