Women in Sports Journalism

To:  ESPN Human Resources

We believe that women in sports journalism are underrepresented and that there should be more women working in higher level positions. Throughout the past few decades, society has come a long way in employing women in sports broadcasting, but the numbers are still far lower than for men in the business.

Turn to any sports channel and it is unlikely that a woman will be anchoring the news or commentary. This is because only about 12% of sports media employees are women and most of them are put in charge of covering low profile events, such as women’s sports and other lesser known sports (Richard 2005). Some media executives claim that much has been done to allow equal opportunity for women but they are still far from being treated equally.

On average, women who work as sports journalists have shorter careers than men. Some of the reasons are prejudice from male co-workers and athletes, and also the need to take care of family matters (Hardin 2005). In the early 1990’s, facing discrimination from male athletes was a major deterrent which caused many female sports journalists to quit or seek harassment damages. While discrimination may not be as rampant as it was many years ago, many women still confront a challenging environment while trying to succeed in this field.

Involving more women in sports broadcasting would help to bring diversity into a traditionally male dominated area of sports entertainment. ESPN’s own vice president Vince Doria has been an advocate of hiring more women and stated that “men are bombarded by clichés from an early age and look for the conventional angle. Women might be more likely to offer a fresh view.” (Richard 2005)

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Women in Sports Journalism Petition to ESPN Human Resources was created by and written by Hoon Yu (xhoonx@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.