Being a Woman in a “Man’s World.”
The sports world has always been seen as prominently male dominated. However, women have been evolving in the sports community, occupying important and essential roles in the business.
What is it like to work in a “man’s world?” Women’s involvement in sports have come a long way since Jane Chastain, the first female sports anchor in the 1960’s. Chastain worked for CBS and was often times criticized for her work because of her gender.
At that time, people, especially males, were not ready for women to infiltrate the sports community. Since then, women have been able to prove themselves in the sports industry. However, is the community completely accepting of having women take up roles that were originally occupied by men?
Even in this day and age, there are a small number of women working in the sports community. However, that number is growing. Women are finding a place in the “man’s world” whether people like it or not.
Four women explained their own personal experience with working in an environment that, because of their gender, people often times question their credibility.
Amy Moritz took her passion for sports and turned it into her life long career.
“I grew up around sports fans,” Moritz said. “The women in my family were also sports fans so I never thought that it was anything unusual.”
Moritz studied journalism and mass communication at Saint Bonaventure University from 1991–1995. Upon graduation, she started working for The Olean Times Herald as both a community and sports reporter. She took every story she could to completely emerge herself in improving her sports writing skills.
From there, Moritz took a job with the Buffalo News as a sports reporter. She has covered everything from collegiate sports to NHL hockey with the Buffalo Sabres.
Working for almost 18 years in the business, Moritz has seen her fair share of gender-related criticism.
Moritz recalls that when she first started writing for women’s basketball, she would receive emails from people criticizing the purpose of a women’s sport being printed in the paper.
Earlier in her career, Moritz mentioned that she would sometimes be criticized for what she wore to cover a game which made her wonder if her male colleagues ever got the same treatment.
“I’ve certainly had people say things to me on twitter and it’s interesting to me,” Moritz said. “Of course it bothers me, I’m only human, but I’ve learned pretty quickly to not let it bother me for too long.”
Moritz said that she has seen women working in sports being attacked over social media, which is bothersome. However, she pointed out that if a person wants to work in media, they can not let the little things, like online criticism, bother them.
Morgan Rumpf is a current student at SUNY Oswego who is intending on diving into the workforce in sports journalism. She recalls people often times questioning her credibility because of her gender, but she would not let that stop her from pursuing her future career.
When Rumpf first decided to start looking into having a career in sports, she felt intimidated after witnessing female sports reporters being relentlessly harassed online.
“I didn’t know how I would be able to handle that,” Rumpf said. “If you say something wrong, your credibility decreases that much more and people are less likely to forgive you because you’re a woman.”
Rumpf pointed out that she believes the evolvement of women in sports can be attributed to the younger, more accepting, generation.
“Society as a whole has realized that women are equal to men,” Rumpf said. “It’s great to see that women are there working in this field and at the same time I would love to be a trail blazer for people in the future.”
Rumpf said that there will always be people trying to target you and make you feel like a lesser person. But, if you know what you are talking about and you have a passion for something, go for it.
Diane Dillon has been the head coach for women’s ice hockey since 2006. She started the program at SUNY Oswego and has heavily contributed to the team’s growth and path to success throughout her time as a Laker.
For Dillon, she was born into her love for sports. Her father was a hockey coach and started the first youth girl’s ice hockey league in New York.
Dillon did not think that she would have a career in sports until she was given the opportunity to coach for women’s ice hockey. Dillon picked up various coaching and assistant coaching jobs all over the nation. She then landed the assistant to the head coach position at her alma mater, Cornell University.
After Cornell, she ended up coming to Oswego. Dillon has put in hours of work to improve and maintain the women’s ice hockey team bringing the program to where they are today.
Dillon recalls that growing up, she never really thought about female discrimination in the sports world. But, as she got older, she saw inequalities in anything from facility access to the wage gap between male and female professional athletes.
“Sports is a predominately male-dominated field, especially with ice hockey,” Dillon said. “There’s the assumption that men know more and that makes me a little nuts.”
Dillon said that many young women were coached by men growing up so having a female coach is a little out of the norm.
She recently returned form an all coach hockey convention in Florida and recalls that although she is accepted at the convention now, that was not always the case.
“It was a male-dominated thing for sure and when women’s hockey started they wanted nothing to do with us,” Dillon said.
According to Dillon, at the Florida convention one year, one of the male coaches yelled at a group of female coaches and told them to leave because he thought they did not belong there.
“It was interesting to see how many people were unnecessary evil,” Dillon said. “I think it’s getting better all the time and I think female sport has found it’s own niche.”
Sydney Wade is currently the Communication Coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. She grew up with a passion for sports and always knew she wanted to pursue a career in that field.
She focuses more on a lot of behind the scenes for the team. Her number one priority is making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to communication between the higher-ups of the team to the athletes on the field.
According to Wade, she has not seen much backlash coming at her in the communication department. However, she urges those that are intimidated to keep pushing through, no matter their gender.
“You have to be confident in your abilities to execute your job to the best of your abilities,” Wade said. “If you go into it with the mindset of thinking that you’re ‘less than,’ you’re putting yourself into a bad position to begin with.”
Being a woman in the sports world, on all levels of professionalism, having thick skin is a necessity. Women are learning just what it takes to prove themselves in a male-dominated society, or “man’s world.”
Something to take from the women’s perspectives is that it takes a certain kind of strong-willed person to be able to set aside their gender-influenced mindset and persevere in an sometimes unaccepting society.
Moritz, Rumpf, Dillon and Wade have all overcame adversities throughout their careers that have shaped their professionalism.
Change is happening in this industry and these women epitomize the change and are able to use that to their advantage to succeed in their careers.
As for women’s involvement in sports in general, there is always going to be room for growth and change. Timing is primarily of the essence when it comes to breaking perspectives of the norm that the sports industry is considered to be a “man’s world.”
