Bobby Kiernan

Research Paper
Final Project
12/12/12

Women in Sports Media: The Fight to Make it in a

Man’s World

For women in the sports world there has always been a constant struggle to garner

the equal respect of the men’s sports world. Hearing things like, “you throw like a girl” or

“you run like a girl,” always belittling the ability of the female athlete. Well for female

sports broadcasters they have been in this similar fight since the 1960’s. Fighting to get

away from the “Barbie-like” (americansportsbroadcasters.com) comments and working

towards becoming known for the knowledge and not there looks, female sports

broadcasters have come along way and continue to do so today,

“Leading the way for female sports broadcasters was Jane Chastain, as she will

always be remembered as the nation’s first female television sportscaster on both local

and national levels. During her 16 years as a sports reporter and anchor in Atlanta,

Raleigh, Miami, Los Angeles, and with CBS network, she broke many journalistic

barriers for women” (www.wnd.com). Jane was a pioneer for women in sports. “In 1963,

just two years out of high school Jane Steppe (before marriage) began making football

predictions as Coach Friday for Atlanta’s WAGA-TV. Each Friday on Ed Thilenius’

show she predicted the outcomes of Saturdays ten toughest games”(

www.chastaincentral.com). That is what truly ignited Jane’s career. Jane was a

trendsetter, breaking barriers and knocking down walls for females later to come. It

wasn’t always easy for her as she fought critics and male chauvinists athletes. “Bernie
Rosen tells the story that, Joe Dimaggio showed up at spring training in Fort Lauderdale

once and refused to talk to Jane. She said to him ‘Mr. Dimmagio I’m going to go back

and tell my boss that I didn’t get the interview because I’m a woman. Would that make

you happy?’ Dimaggio thought about it, gave her the interview, and told her later, ‘You

know what? You did know what were you talking about.’”(www.chastaincentral.com)

Setting the bar for women wasn’t easy for Jane Chastain and it wasn’t easy after

that for others. Betsy Ross who was an avid sports fan landed her first job after college

working for the South Bend Tribune as a writer. In her book she relives her first

experience when given the chance to help write for the understaffed Tribune’s sports

section. “As terrific as that opportunity was, that was also my first rude awakening to the

reality of women covering sports.”(Playing ball with The Boys, pg. 11) Betsy began to

cover high school sports and explains about her first rude awakening. “But one Friday

night at a South Bend Clay High School when I made my way up to the press box, I was

turned away. ‘Nope, no room in here,’ the P.A. announcer said even though there was at

least four open spaces to his right. I tried not to notice the slight smile he gave one of his

buddies as I thanked him, walked down the bleachers and stood by the fence that

separated the stands from the field. And that’s where I covered the game. I got the job

done and the story filed but I’ll never forget the night.”(playing ball with the boy pg.11-

12) In a male dominant sports world this a continued occurrence, females being treated

with little respect and as if they know nothing about sports, but are looked at as just

simply something nice to look at with little intelligence. No male thinks that any female

could possibly have an equal knowledge of sports as them or could offer anything
intelligent to say about anything involving sports. Betsy continued to work to change this

outlook of women working in sports.

Betsy Ross along with Robin Roberts, Linda Cohn, Chris McKendry, and Pam

Ward were the first and only five female sports anchors to work for ESPN, a major sports

network< when it first began out of about 60 anchors(playing ball with the boys, pg. 17).

These women brought intelligence in sport with a female perspective. Along with these

females other major important figures in women’s sports broadcasting were and still are

Ann Liguori, Lesley Visser, Gayle Gardner, Hannah Storm and Phyillis George just to

mention a few.

Phyllis George is a great example of a strong female being more then just

something for the male gaze. George was crowned Miss America in 1971 and just four

years later became co-host of The NFL today on CBS in 1975(www.shemadeit.org).

George quickly garnered the respect from the public and from the male athletes she

interviewed. Although being a very attractive women George used her sports prowess to

build a career that help bud a future for other females to move into the sports world. She

was strong, confident and knew what she wanted. Following George, was Jayne Kennedy

who took George’s spot in 1978 and became the first African-American female to host a

network sports television broadcast.

In a male-white dominated world Jayne Kennedy at the time was hired more for

her beautiful on camera look then what she could actually offer the public as far as sports

knowledge was concerned. This was the fight that all women in this field took on.

Females knew that to cross into a male dominated field it would be difficult and

historically if you do look from the past history of female sports broadcasters not has not
been easy on the eye. For major networks appearance is important and so far not has

taken the risk of hiring a female sports broadcaster that wouldn’t be considered a “babe”

in some way or another. In most cases networks were hiring females simply just to say

they had a female to work around ways of being labeled as sexist or unfair to women.

For women they are held to such a higher standard in this field with such limited

room for mistake. Still, female sportscasters at ESPN and elsewhere are aware of a

double standard. Said Roberts, "If Chris [Berman] were to slip and say 'innings' instead of

'quarters,' people would say, 'That old Boomer! Ha, ha, ha.' If I said 'innings' instead of

'quarters,' though, it would be 'Aha! She doesn't know what she's talking about. ...' But

I'm very pleased to see the growth of women sportscasters. I don't just cover the Women's

Final Four; I cover the Men's Final Four as well.'' (7)Kremer agreed. ''It's tougher on

women, no question about it. The margin for error is just not there. You cannot make a

mistake.'' (8)Said Walsh, "Women can't afford to make the same mistakes men can and

recover from them. When a woman makes a mistake, the male audience says, 'Ah-hah, I

told you.' When Chris Berman makes a mistake, the audience says 'Ah, he just missed

that one.'" (9)( http://www.onlinesports.com/sportstrust/sports43.html) Now although this

is laughed off it just unfair to women. How long do you think Chris Berman spends on

preparing how he looks for the camera? Or what he is going to where his makeup or his

diet? All of these are added criteria that women are faced to deal with in the sports world.

Linda Cohn, who is a highly respected sports broadcaster said, "If I have a hair

out of place, both the men and the women on the couch are going to pay more attention to

that than anything I'm saying. ...”(http://www.onlinesports.com/sportstrust/sports43.html)

These words are out a pioneer in women’s broadcasting. She also goes on to mention in

an interview with journalismjobs.com about women and the emphasis on looks, “That's

part of it. It's totally more a part of it for women than it is for men -- always has been,

always will. But that's cool. What's kind of cool in that respect is that I think you can

have it all. My fans range from young men, like 18 years old, to eight-year-old girls to

55-year-old men to women who are like 28 and love sports. I think women who are hired

just for looks, they become exposed and their time of employment usually doesn't last

that long.” (http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_cohn.cfm)

This is in fact true. Mass media is such a huge part of our society today and the

internet is a leading factor. In researching it amazed me how many times I came across

titles of websites like “top babes in sports” or “sexiest figures in sports.” Never did I once

see any website proclaiming major male broadcaster like Marv Albert, Chris Berman,

Tony Siraguosa or Peter Gammons. The simple fact is people don’t care what a male

sports broadcaster looks like only do they hear the words and facts that they present on

camera. Why can there be no equality in this for women on the field?

Its not only from the outside looking in but the problems that females face within

networks and with co-workers who don’t consider them as worthy as males in their field.

Suzy Kolber is a perfect example of this with her public disputes with Kieth Olberman.

Kolber was respected and worked for ESPN but still dealt with the critics who didn’t

believe sports were field for women of any kind. “The sports anchor also received

unwanted attention in 2002 when 60 Minutes commentator and resident grumpy old man

Andy Rooney complained that “a woman has no business being down there trying to
make some comment about a football game.” She responded by saying, “He has a right to

say what he wants, but from my standpoint, it’s not a reflection of me. I clearly know

what I’m talking about.”( http://www.youngmoney.com/careers/career-

advice/030718_01/) Strong women like kolber are able to shake comments like this off

though still unfair as she is just as qualified as any male doing the same job.

A lot like Kolber and other predecessor’s women in the sports broadcasting field

have come accustom to these stereotypes. Nanci Donnellan for instance even took on a

spin on things. She became the first and only female host of a nationally syndicated

sports show and gave herself the persona of the “Fabulous Sports Babe.” Donnelan later

wrote a memoir entitled “ The Babe in Boyland” but I really have to question this. In the

fight for women to break loose of this image as the babe in sports, although she is playing

with the word “babe” what is that saying for the youth and females who follow her.

There have been many females who have failed but networks have hired them

solely on there appearance but not there knowledge. Not many networks would take a

chance on a female sports broadcaster with the sports knowledge of three of their best

male reporters put together but possibly a little overweight or not easiest on the eye.

Although on the other networks would take a super model with no knowledge on in a

second. What kind of image is this showing? There have been far more failed attempts at

hiring females for the male gaze then at that of hiring females with the credentials to be

successful in the actual field of sports broadcasting.

 Bibliography:

http://www.youngmoney.com/careers/career-advice/030718_01/

http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_cohn.cfm

http://www.onlinesports.com/sportstrust/sports43.html

http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=30

http://www.chastaincentral.com/content/jane.html#sports

http://www.wnd.com/speakers/jchastain.asp