Between Jeffrey Dransfeldt’s column yesterday, in which he bemoaned the lack of attention that women’s sports attract, and my column today, this week’s sports section is turning out to look like an issue of Women’s Health.
But maybe that’s a good thing, because it’s time women’s sports got the exposure they deserve.
Women’s sports have always taken a backseat to men’s sports. Even the headline from Dransfeldt’s column yesterday said volumes about the way our society perceives women’s sports: “Football got you down? Go watch the women!”
That headline implies that we should go watch women’s sports only if we’re sick of watching the football team lose.
I get lots of indignant looks every time I describe my workload and people realize that the one female on the sports desk is going to be covering women’s sports almost exclusively.
I’ve got women’s soccer right now, women’s basketball in the winter, and women’s track in the spring, as well as men’s and women’s tennis.
People then ask why I didn’t get assigned the ‘real’ sports – ‘real’ in this case being football and basketball, the two income magnets.
But here’s the thing, I was given the option of covering football and men’s basketball. I turned it down.
Because the way I see it, I’m never going to get the opportunity to focus my energies solely on women’s sports ever again.
The reality of the sports world is that men’s sports matter, and women’s sports don’t. The big league triumvirate of the NFL, NBA and MLB are boys’ clubs. Women are represented solely by the – at best, moderately successful – WNBA.
The aspiring sports journalist’s career ladder consists of prep sports (obviously focusing on football and basketball), college sports (again focusing on football and basketball) and then if you’re lucky, a beat covering one of the three major pro (men’s) sports at a major daily newspaper.
The definition of success in the sports journalism world does not include women’s sports.
Right now the collegiate level is the pinnacle of most women’s sports. It’s comparable to the professional dimension of men’s sports because for most female athletes, this is it.
There is no guaranteed million-dollar professional contract waiting in the wings for Nicole Garbin, Dominika Dieskova, or Eleanor Haring like there was for Kellen Clemens and Luke Ridnour.
These women put everything they have into their collegiate careers, and they’re repaid with lackluster attention from their peers and second-rate status in the athletic world.
I think that’s a load of crap.
That’s why I turned down the professional reputation that comes with covering football for the personal gratification of covering women’s soccer. As a woman and as a sportswriter, I’m honored to have the opportunity to give these unsung heroes the attention and respect that they deserve.
Honoring and focusing on unsung heroines
Daily Emerald
October 24, 2006
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