Women in Sports Departments

Crazy, too.

 

Yea, but men are just insane. . .

 

Just for the record, this is not from one of my posts (unless it was in a quote function, or cut/pasted for the benefit of Birdscribe, which I recall doing once).

It's from Paul Oberjuerge's blog on tips for keeping a journalism job these days. And I am not him.

(But thanks, Paul/dooley_womack1. I'll keep those in mind).

 

The walrus was Paul. But if you wanna think I'm Paul, KO yerself out.

 

At a Gannett shop, I was told that I had to hire a female to fill an opening.
The ME didn't want the sports department to be a boys-only club and had mandated that the department always have at least one full-time female.
The women we had come through were all pretty good, but I think only one is still in the business, but not in sports, with the others having left for law school or to teach or just have families.
I think that's the thing about women in the sports department, while it is always hard to have a family for anyone, I think its damn near impossible for a woman even though I know some can pull it off.
I think anyone can be a bad boss or a bad co-worker. But to assume that the woman at your joint isn't any good and that opinion is based solely on her gender, probably just means that you are the one who sucks at their job.

 

I don't think you're Paul. Never did.

 

Looking back at it, I was in error on my original post. Reading comprehension is good, in retrospect. My apologies.

 

get back to the cave much for reunions?

 

OK, I re-read the initial post from the perspective of a young woman. And I say young because I think any woman who has been in this business for any length of time would not need to ask these questions of the board.

If the poster is indeed a young woman, it sounds like someone who is very insecure in her abilities and acutely aware of her position as a female within a sports department. Maybe she's been made acutely aware by coworkers, but if that's true, it's fueling her insecurity.

 

I really don't have a lot to offer strictly in terms of women in sports departments. However, I've worked for and with female and male managers/editors.

I get the impression that a woman trying to break in still has to be much better than an equally experienced male counterpart because of perception. I've met some female SportsJournalists.commers who are, without exception, as sports knowledgeable as anyone I've met, male or female. However, the perception that some people still seem to have is that women who know sports are somehow unusual or they're just in it to see cute guys playing or doing whatever.

I get the distinct feeling that women have to prove themselves in a way that men don't have to. Frankly, that sucks big time.

That's not just true of women in sports, however. A female cop has to be much tougher than a male cop. In fact, I've heard people say they'd be less likely to risk confronting a female cop because of that. Same for female transit bus drivers versus male transit bus drivers. That's not to say the roughest edges can't be smoothed out. I can still point to some female drivers who carry that tough as nails persona who warmed up to me before long. But I don't think people say they'd rather take their chances with a male cop for farts and giggles.

As far as the debate about female managers versus male managers is concerned, the evidence I've read points to the fact that women feel they have to be tougher than men, so they carry that aggression into the workplace.

Hopefully, the day will come that a woman can be treated equally without having to jump through hoops that men don't have to. We aren't there yet.

 

Coo coo, kachoo.

 

So do I. Just not in that way.