Women’s sport have made leaps forward on the pitch. But, has there been any progress made off the pitch when it comes to the number of women reporting on sports?
When Jacqui Oately made history by becoming the first woman to commentate on Match of the Day, she didn’t just make history, she became a role model for young aspiring female sports journalist’s, including me. She epitomises how hard work and the willingness to succeed can help you break into the macho world of sports journalism.
However, it’s never been plain sailing when it comes to women covering sports. Do women have to work twice as hard to make it? Have we really moved on from the days when the derogatory views of dinosaurs like Andy Gray and Richard Keys were present?
Tina Daheley a journalist for the BBC, who covered the 2014 football World Cup in Brazil told The Telegraph, “If you’re a woman working in that area (sports) you’ve really got to know your stuff. It’s not to put people off but you just have to work twice as hard.” She also expressed how frequently employers can be cautious about putting women in the masculine environment of a full football stadium, with her personally being viewed as a “delicate flower.” These hurdles can be de-motivating and “a lot of the time I think women lack confidence,” explained Daheley in the interview.
Since I was a young girl I’ve been fascinated and drawn towards sport, football, tennis, cricket, you name it. However, I was never encouraged to pursue a career in sports journalism at any level of my education. It just was not seen as a job for women. For me, it took self-evaluation and motivation to realise that sports journalism was for me and being a woman had nothing to do with it.
But, when the Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS) released some shocking statistics this year, it was a stark reminder that sports journalism still has a long way to go. They examined a total of 456 roles across media coverage at major tournaments, including the Olympics, Paralympics, European Football Championships and Wimbledon in 2016. Twelve out of 143 roles reviewed were given to women across newspapers and only one woman out of 51 journalists was sent to the Euros.
There were only six roles for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women across 456 journalists. It’s this statistic that really struck a chord with me as an aspiring sports journalist, who is yet to see another woman of a BAME background in the Leicester City football club press box. As a British Asian woman, it’s frightening to think that such a bleak figure can make you question whether there is a future for someone like you within the profession. But, perhaps this is the entire point of such a finding, a much-needed shake-up of the entire sector of sports journalism to have a good, long hard look at itself, and dare I bring up the word, diversity within the profession. So, as far as progress goes, sports journalism can certainly do better.
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