In a mixed setting of men and women the other day, a man, seeing that I am from Cincinnati, approached me and inquired the name of my favorite Bengals player. He didn't ask because he actually cared about my opinion, heaven forbid, but he simply wanted to start a conversation. However, I was shocked ' amazed that this young man truly thought I knew anything about sports. But I'm female, the disturbingly old-fashioned part of my brain laughed. Shouldn't I be in the kitchen making snacks? However, the progressive, women's rights synapses slowly started firing, and I realized that perhaps we have finally arrived at a time when women could enter and be a part of probably the oldest no girls allowed traditions of male society.
So maybe we're allowed on the court, and we've evened out the playing field, but more importantly, we can now write about it, and both women and men will listen to us as authorities. What do you mean, there are women on ESPN? Is that a woman interviewing a football player twice her size? That's just crazy G? or is it? There is a whole new generation of women who know just as much about sports as the ol' boys do, and seeing women on television and reading their articles in the papers could influence more and more young women to pursue a career in sports and sports writing.
In an article from the American Journalism Review, Tracy Dodds, one of the first women sportswriters, said that when women first entered the sports writing business, they were often called sluts and groupies
instead of being treated with the respect given to male reporters. This was decades ago though. Of course, there are still some prejudices, such as unofficial limits on high-up positions for women in sports, but things have changed from the days of getting harassed in locker rooms. Thank goodness.
It's not the pride of men in general, but rather that of individuals, that caused all the prejudices and problems women writers have had to battle. Female sportswriters got where they are today with the support of a number of men. The vice president and director of news for ESPN, Vince Doria, always made hiring women a priority. Perhaps 2008 is the year in which we all realize that behind every good woman, there's a good man.
So what does this mean for the fellas? It looks like women are competition in all facets of their lives. Now daddies sometimes stay home with the kids, and the men know their way around the kitchen, not just the grill. Women aren't necessarily just calling the shots in the home anymore; they might also be doing so on the field. Has women's induction into sports writing society ended the gender divide and made us complete equals? Not just yet. We still don't have a women's football team to write about. However, at least now the ladies have a voice, and that voice is slamming out stats as well as the next guy G? or girl.
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Caroline Melia
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Women are finally contenders in the business of sports writing
