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/)