Augusta Golf Club Extends Membership to Two Highly Qualified Women

Recently in 2012, the historically all-male and most exclusive golf club in the United States extended membership to highly-qualified women; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and partner of private investment firm Rainwater Inc, Darla Moore. In addition to being one of the most exclusive clubs in the US, Augusta also hosts the Masters tournament each year. While many women activist and writers are ecstatic about the recent changes the club has made, many still are left speculating why now and why these two women?

On the contrary, many were critical of this decision because they believe that some long-standing traditions should be preserved. But, I believe that Augusta was more or less pushed into making this decision because of the amount of press this situation was receiving. Because the Masters is one of the most covered golf tournaments in the US, the PGA had to differentiate their views from those shared by the executive board at Augusta. In addition to this, women's activist Martha Burk, is known for her disagreement with the chairman of Augusta and the open letter she wrote to them stating that this treatment of women constituted as sexism and should not be tolerated. So— what does all of this have to do with my project? Because Burk, started advocating for women to be members at Augusta,  famous sports reporter, Christine Brennan, gave this topic the media attention it deserved.  Brennan's actions again show how women should support other women and by doing so allowed other women to join in to support. Also this story shows the power of the media and that if you strongly support something that is unjust you have the ability to make a difference which can affect everyone around you and the future generations that will come after you.

Are the Numbers Lying?

In my last post I discussed some of the statistics regarding women in the media and the gender representations in the newsrooms from 1990-2013. While the statistics say that women represent around 36% of the population in the newsrooms, studies show that between 70%-76% of journalism and mass communications graduates are women. So where are the women going? Well, according to research done by USC's Annenberg School of Journalism and Communications around 36.3% of female graduates sought public relation jobs in comparison to 25.2% of male graduates. Also according to the study 32.5% of females chose adverting agency jobs while only 27.5% of males chose this route. These statistics are very significant because it shows that although women are graduating with journalism degrees they are not pursuing an actual journalism career unlike their male counterparts.  Many speculate that this may be because working in journalism is very masculine and oriented in a way where you have to sacrifice a lot of your personal time and for many young women that can be seen as very intimidating. Also in addition to this, many researchers believe that women look to work in a market were the jobs are stable and consistent and since the internet is changing the way news is being reported this is one possible reason for why women opt out of the journalism career.  But, although they are avoiding the more difficult path, some believe that they are at a disadvantage because the advertising and public relation industry is 3/4ths women and therefore there will actually be more competition in comparison to news.

Statistics about Women in the Media

After doing research about women in the media, I have complied a couple of key statistics that stood out to me.

 

This pie chart shows the racial breakdown of women in sports journalism. But, what this chart does not show is how all of these numbers have decreased over a period of time.  For example, in 2000 51% of the women in Journalism were Native American but, as the years have progress that number has dropped to a staggering 38% in 2013.  Aside from Native American women, in 2010 50% of the women were African-American, but three years later, that number had decreased to 47%. 

(* all data taken from The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014)

Now, looking more in depth into the world of sports journalism, as of 2013 90% of the sports editors in the United States are men and also 90% of them are white. Which shows that there is hardly any diversity in the field of sports journalism especially during a time when most consider many fields to be moving towards gender equality. Out of 150 newspapers and websites—they would give themselves an "F" for hiring women for jobs such as editors, columnists, copy editors and designers, which account for 14.6% of the total staff. (* all data taken from The Columbia Journalism Review)

This graph shows the gender representation in the newsrooms for the past 14 years. On contrary to what some believe, the numbers have not changed that much although women have made tremendous progress throughout the years. 

Who is Lisa Olson?

For the past few weeks, I have done a tremendous amount of research to find women who were pioneers in the Sports Journalism world. While I have found many inspirational and courageous women, Lisa Olson's story particularly struck me. This was because out of the many women reporters who I have spoken to thus far, only a small number of them recall demeaning treatment in the locker rooms of various sports teams, which lead me to believe that maybe this only occurred before Title IX. But, in actually this was not true. Lisa Olson was a reporter for the Boston Herald and also worked as a reporter with the New England Patriots. Olson recalled one night after a game going into the locker room during the allotted time to do her interviews, but rather than fulfilling this task, she was harassed. Well—some may ask what did she define as harassment? Was is simply not allowing her to interview the men? Or was it not allowing her into the locker room at all. But, it was much worse than that. As she describes it was "mental rape".  The players purposely harassed her in order to make her feel as uncomfortable as possible so that she would eventually leave. Out of pure anger, she did exactly what they wanted her to do—leave.  When this story first broke out to the public, instead of receiving sympathy after what she had endured, she received hate. She received many hundreds of hate calls from angry Patriots fans who were disappointed that she brought this issue to the attention of the press and the players were fined for the remarks they made. In addition to threatening phone calls, her tires were slashed and due to the severity of the threats she had to move to Australia until the civil case finally closed.

But, why is this important? This case was significant for many reasons, the first being that discrimination in the locker rooms. Although it may not be as prevalent and up front as Olson's incident was but, it still does exist. And what I believe is most significant about this story is that it shows that again, women must stick together as many reporters have said. This is because if women stick together and stand up against this type of discrimination and bring more attention to it, it professional sports leagues are more likely to deliver more severe punishments.

The Million Dollar Question

This question is one that is highly discussed in the world of Journalism in general. Will the traditional print newspaper die out? After speaking with many journalist and reading many opinions, many of them believe that all of the signs are there and that while there is no time table- the print paper will die.  According to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the median age of their subscribers are 56 years old so when they eventually die out and then another question that will arise is where will their subscriptions go? The simple answer to that question is that their subscriptions will decline substantially and then the Chronicle will be faced with a difficult task at hand of cutting the print paper all together to save money or decrease the amount of papers that are being printed. But, the piece of information that stood out to me the most is when Schulman told me his boss described the Chronicle to him as a digital blog with a print version. This was very shocking to me because in the past the San Francisco Chronicle was one of the biggest print papers in the Bay Area but now since the emphasis has been shifted towards online articles, the print paper almost seems like it is no longer needed. But, in the end while Schulman does believe the print paper will eventually die out, he doesn't believe that it will happen as fast as many people believe.

In addition to Schulman, free lance reporter, Kate Daly too believes that the print paper will die out because all of the signs are there. Before speaking to her, she handed me yesterday's San Jose Mercury and asked me what was wrong with it. Immediately I noticed how thin the paper was in comparison to how thick it use to be. And, just this simple action was another sign that the traditional print paper will be gone.

For me, not having a traditional print paper can be good but I also believe that it can have a negative affect on our society. First, since many people today have some sort of device whether it be a smart phone, laptop or tablet they have an instant way to access news and no longer need to rely on the next days paper to see what happened. So therefore in this manner, not having the print paper will not only save companies a lot of money, it helps the news stay current because of the ability to edit online stories and repost them. While on the other hand, not having a traditional print paper can also have negative affects. For example, the by not having a traditional paper, the newspaper companies are limited to the number of advertisements they can have which also generate money. But, the main reason why it would have a negative affect would be, what happens to the people who still like the traditional print paper and don't have access to the online edition.

While, many predict that the traditional print paper will eventually die out, they are reluctant to put forth a set date as there is no way to tell the day and year it will no longer exist. But, as for now we can enjoy the small fragments of print paper we have.

Women Supporting Women

As Anne Doyle said in her novel, Powering Up, "every woman for herself is a losing strategy" and that's why women don't rule.  But, in today's generation, I believe that women have heard the message of Doyle and strive to change the notion of "every woman for herself". They have done this by creating organizations in which other women journalist support and mentor each other by having local chapters as well as attending conferences. One organization that specializes in this is the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM). This organization was co-founded by Michele Himmelberg, who felt there needed to be stronger support for women who were in the same field as she was. And through this organization women can attend conferences with other women as another source of networking. Also in this organization, students are able to start local chapters at their colleges/universities as another way of extending the support to women who are involved with Sports Media. Lastly, this organization provides scholarships and internships to young girls who are interested in Sports Media as a way to get them into that world at an early age.  In addition to AWSM, The McCormick Foundation New Media Women Entrepreneurs (NMWE). This organization is connected with American Universities school of Communication and their mission is to not only to provide new opportunities and inspire women, but to continue encouraging them to pursue journalism career.

In my opinion, I believe that both of these organizations are necessary for the growth of women in Journalism as a whole. This is because just as any other career, networking and support are two key elements you must have. But, in Sports Journalism, where there are not many women reporters, having organizations where you are able to attend conferences where you are able to accomplish these to key components is crucial. For the AWSM organization, you are able to join as a student and attend the yearly conferences without being a professional journalist. In the future, I want to join AWSM and attend the yearly conferences and be apart of the women supporting women notion that Anne Doyle described.

 (http://awsmonline.org/)                                                                 (http://www.newmediawomen.org/)

Women Who Have Paved The Way

Throughout history there has always been successful women that have paved the way to create a better life for everyone today. But, in the world of Sports Journalism many of these women won't be a household name. After watching the short documentary, Let Them Wear Towels I have heard the stories of many of these women and now have a greater appreciation for what I am able to do today, such as shadowing a Giants reporter. For example, Betty Cuniberti was the first woman who was allowed inside of the Dodgers Press Box. Had it not been for Cuniberti, I would not have been able to shadow with Mr. Haft and get the chance to see what actually happens before the game. In addition to Cuniberti, Michele Himmelberg has a very significant impact on Sports Journalism. This is because Himmelberg was not only a prominent reporter in the NFL, she co-founded Association for Women in Sports Media. The AWSM is an organization which supports women's advancement and growth of women in sports media. And lastly, Claire Smith an African-American woman who was truly against all odds because not only was she a woman she was also a minority. After being physically pushed out of the Padres clubhouse by their GM, she has become a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and has received many high honor awards.

While these women have many things in common, one most important factor is that they were all courageous and realized that they worked to achieve something much larger than them. And that they would be remembered as someone who paved the way for other women reporters today.