So what does the landscape of female sports media members look like today? Although there have been major breakthroughs in the last 50 years, with attempts to move towards equality, true equality is still a long ways away. Below are the 2013 Gender representation in newspaper sports media, and the 2012 AP Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report Card.
Constant judging and ranking of female sports broadcasters according to attractiveness is still propagated by mainstream sports media:
50 Hottest Female Sports Broadcasters from Around the World
20 Sexiest Sports Reporters of 2012
20 Sexiest Local Sports Broadcasters
40 Hottest College Football Reporters
-In 2012, Meredith Vieira was the first woman to host Olympic primetime, but only because Bob Costas had double pinkeye and Matt Lauer, the first choice replacement was too tired.
-Even to this day, only one woman has ever been a play-by-play announcer in the NFL-And only for one game- Gaile Sierens in 1987.
-Ninety-three per cent of female journalists surveyed claimed that the obstacles or frustrations they encounter are not the same obstacles or frustrations that their male counterparts experience and this study pursued women’s experience of these obstacles.
“Women sportscasters stated that they felt pressure to maintain their appearance, constantly prove their credibility, confront inequitable treatment, work longer hours for promotions, and tolerate the network’s informal policy of hiring ‘beauty over intelligence’.” (Billiot and Grubb)
Although a legal framework has been established to supposedly allow equal access to these jobs and roles, societal factors continue to push women 1) not to enter the industry and 2) if they do gain access, relegation to positions where they will much more likely be used for aesthetic purposes rather than the actual contributions they can make to talking and writing.