Tuesday Taste: Gender Inequality in Sports Broadcasting | 4 min read + watch a video

Gender Inequality in Sports Broadcasting

It's both athletes and other women with careers in sports who get judged on the basis of their gender, not their ability.

Let us begin with a taste of what it feels like to be a female commentator in a male-dominated sports industry. Take a moment to watch this 4-min 2016 award-winning Just Not Sports public service social ad - Women in Sports "Face" Harassment. Real men were asked to read out loud real twits directed at some prominent sportscasters - to their face. The hashtag of the campaign was #MoreThanMean.

According to Quartz.com, 90% of commentators and anchors are men. Vicki Sparks, who made history by being the first woman to comment on a live World Cup match for British Television, faced criticism for the pitch of her voice. As former defender for Chelsea Jason Cundy put it on air for national television, "Ninety minutes of hearing a high-pitched tone isn’t really what I like to hear." He was immediately confronted by the host who called him "a sexist pig". Cundy later apologized.

Another trailblazer is Jessica Mendoza, the first female to call a nationally televised Major League Baseball playoff game and a Sunday Night Baseball analyst for ESPN. Mendoza, a two-time Olympic gold medalist for the US softball team, admits to TIME she doesn't open twitter until Thursday after a Sunday game she commented on. That's the social media strategy she adopted to keep herself level. She's been blamed for having a softball background as well as being a female, among other things.  

Jessica Mendoza signes autographs Source: TIME magazine

Kim Jones of the NFL Network says she gets a lot of comments about how her good looks are the only reason she has that job. At the same time, she gets called ugly regularly. An ironic dual-standard women have to face in so many professional areas. If you don't put on makeup, you don't look professional. If you put on makeup, you're not serious. 

As Julie DiCaro, a sports talk radio host from Chicago shared with The Chicago Tribune: 

"As if some of my earliest memories aren’t sitting on my dad’s lap watching the Bears and Cubs. … Sports belong to all of us.”