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.

Nine for IX: Let Them Wear Towels

The documentary Let Them Wear Towels followed the stories of four women sports reporters and the challenges they had to face while trying to pursue the career they love.  In the opening credits of the movie, the two women directors explained how the title came to be. They noted that many coaches didn't want women in the locker room because the players were naked which led to them saying "let them wear towels". Many of the women noted that this fight to gain access into the locker room was generational, meaning that before this time period, women would have never thought to go into the locker room of a male sports team let alone get a day job. They also note that this fight had nothing to do with nudity but, rather it simply boiled down to power and access.  On the doors of many of the locker rooms and the badges of the writers it clearly stated that there were no women or children allowed because team managers believed that not only did women not belong in the locker room, they had no reason or place to be there.

But, the irony of the whole situation was that all of these players, managers, and other reporters were sons of some women but they didn't want another woman interviewing them about their game performance. As this irony was true, the players, managers and even other members of the media still found a way to make jokes and criticize the work of women sports reporters. By saying, women did not know enough about sports nor were they smart enough to do this type of work. And they even went as far as to saying a women reporter would do anything to get a good story.

  As this problem of no access to the locker rooms became more and more serious, the women started to sense a culture shift especially in the 70s when Title IX was finally passed. Many people believe that Title IX simply applies to education only. While this is true, Title IX helped those women who grew up with sports but couldn't play them but always knew they wanted to be involved in some aspect fulfill their dreams. Many of the younger female reporters today played a sport in college which further perpetuated their love for sports and then led them to want to write about sports as a career. But, if Title IX had never passed, women would not be able to play in sports teams at school or as I believe have access to locker rooms and other parts of the sports fields. But, out of all the events that happened during the process of Title IX, there was one that would be remembered forever. The day when Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in a match known as "The Battle of the Sexes". This match solidified the fact that women are can handle pressure filled situations just as men are able to and that they were just as good as men if they put their mind to it.  While, many knew that this match would be a key point in history, it was much more than a match.  This match gave women around the world more confidence and that they could succeed at whatever they put their mind to. From that point on, women no longer thought of themselves as just homemakers but rather they were liberated. And this inspired many women who aspired to be sports reporters to go out and do so because now there was nothing stopping them.

Nine for IX teaser

Nine for IX is a collection of documentaries first aired by ESPN to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX. Title IX was a landmark decision 1972, which said that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Nine for IX is comprised of nine 60-minute films which includes Let Them Wear Towels, a short which follows five female reporters into the locker rooms of all male teams and the challenges that awaited them. But, many wonder what Title IX has to do with female sports reporters, well stay tuned to see what the documentary shows us!

Oh no! Cain Cuts his Hand Hours Before the First Pitch

Oh no is right. Before the start of each game, reporters compile stats, quotes and other tidbits of information in order to help them prepare the articles they have to turn in at various deadlines throughout the game. But, when a starting player, especially the pitcher is scratched from the lineup just hours before the game- the press box goes into scramble mode. Many may ask why can't they simply just rewrite the articles with the new name of the player replacing the injured, well as I have learned it is  not easy to just "rewrite" the articles. This is because during the pre-game meetings and Q&A sessions with the team manager, the reporters have the opportunity to ask questions about the pitcher and how they match up for the specific team they are playing. Also before the game, many of the reporters use the stat sheets that are provided to them as well as analyze and compare stats that is on baseball-reference.com And therefore, after this happens the reporters are pulling out their hair in order to prepare a new article with new stats about the new pitcher. Also this creates more work because that can mean that after the game the reporters may have to do double the work, meaning that they would have to get an injury update for the player and also quotes from the pitcher that replaced him.

After the chaos had settled the reporters finally figured out why Cain was scratched from the lineup. It turns out that after warm ups Cain cut his hand on a knife and although the injury did not require stitches, after attempting to pitch, the wound kept re-opening.  But, starting in his place would be the Venezuelan pitcher, Yusmeiro Petit who lifted the team to a 6-0 win over the padres.

What's with centerfield?

While attending the first game with reporter, Chris Haft, he shared a piece of information with me that I found extremely interesting.  Before the area behind center field was closed off and housed concession stands but, after many balls began to drop there it was thought that if the wall was opened up outfielders would be able to catch them. This speculation even led some to believe that more balls were now gravitating in that direction more so than in the past. But, after hearing from team manager, Bruce Bochy I'm not convinced that opening the wall has changed anything. According to Haft who spoke with outfielder, Angel Pagan, he has not yet seen a difference between the previously closed off wall and the new opening.

With all of the evidence that I have been provided with I still have two main questions— how much evidence did the Giants actually have when they decided to make this change and does the bullpen have anything to do with the direction of the ball?  Well, I believe that the direction of the ball certainly depends on who is on the mound. Maybe when the staff noticed that balls began drifting towards centerfield happened to be a game where there was a left and a right handed pitcher. Also, I believe that the Giants staff did not have sufficient statistical evidence to move the wall back because it was done within the last couple of games. 

Who is Anne Doyle?

Aside from interning with a Giants reporter, I have also made this project more personal by conducting research to see who was actually one of the first woman reporters in professional sports. After doing an internet search I came across a woman named Anne Doyle. Although many people have never heard off her, the obstacles that she has had to overcome has opened doors for women reporters today.  Her book, Powering Up details the crucial things women must be able to do in order for them to succeed as successful leaders in America. One of my favorite quotes from Powering Up is when Doyle is recounting one of her first experiences with discrimination in the sports journalism world. " When Detroit Tiger GM Jim Campbell told me, Over my dead body you'll go into our Tiger Clubhouse, I knew I had to open those locker rooms - not just for my own credibility, but for every woman sports reporter who would come after me.  This quote truly connected with me because as I saw when I attended the Giants game, there are not many female reporters in the press box today and which therefore means that there were absolutely no women during Anne Doyle's time and to have a woman that was so persistant and wanted to open doors for those who followed is an inspiration to me. I admire anyone who was able to withstand discrimination and have make an impact on society, but I look up to Doyle because she never gave up, even when the cards were not in her favor she knew she had to keep going in order to make a difference for young women like me.

Later on during the month, I will provide a transcript of the interview between Anne Doyle and I.