NFL contender Emily Leiker and her friend Christina Long hugged into a crowded elevator to the press gallery to watch a University of Missouri football game at Faurot Field. Everywhere they looked, there were men: colleagues, friends, other members of the media. .
“It’s just one of those moments when you realize, “Oh, yes, that’s probably what it’s going to be for a while,” Leiker recalls.
Leiker, a sophoday sophoday sophoday student at the time, and Long, a third-year student, were the women to the rhythm of Mizzou’s football.
Their delight is common: women account for less than 14% of sports journalists, according to a 2005 study, and less than 4% of sports media policy is for female athletes; however, even these striking figures do not fully reflect the demanding situations faced through women in sport.
A recent Washington Post article detailed allegations of sexual harassment through 15 former Washington football team workers and two wise women news reports from 2006 to 2019. On August 26, a new Post report detailed the accusations of 25 other women working for the organization. According to the Post’s report, in 2008 an obscene video of Washington football team cheerers made without their consent, appearing what former team announcer Larry Michael allegedly called “the smart guys. “sides. ” According to Brad Baker, Michael’s former staff member, the video was intended for the team owner, Daniel Snyder.
The 25 women described in detail the behavior of their male leaders and colleagues, adding side comments on their bodies and clothing, using sexual innuendo in professional settings, and unwanted advances. The fees included the dismissal of a woman through Snyder because she looked “unpleasant”, the desire to wear heels, but also to make too much noise, and a limitation of the spaces in which women can simply walk around the complex so as not to distract players. football team had only one user running in its human resources branch at the time of the allegations.
For women who are still looking to come into play, these stories are a mixture of discouragement and the inevitable. Kennedi Landry, 22, Ella Brockway, 21, and Aria Gerson, 21, are among the many aspiring university game reporters from across the country. like Leiker and Long. All five connected with the Women’s Sports Media Association and discovered many reasons to stay in touch this summer despite the interruption in professional play at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Together, the fiveArray, some of which read both Post stories and some were unable to navigate them, joined the unique demanding situations that arise in the sport.
Long says he read the first article when it was published and had to turn himself in a few days before starting the second.
“It was one of the things I realized, but I was like, “I’m so tired,” Long says. “My biggest concern is not being able to take care of something like this that happens to me. “
As recent college graduates and current graduates, these women are the next generation of women in the sport. In what has a #MeToo movement in world sport, following the accusations of 40 women within the same organization, aspiring women wonder “Am I difficult enough?And, “Is it valuable?”
Like the world’s top sports media, the five women were texting before Post’s first article, speculating on the content. Brockway says that when the news was given there, the tone of his verbal exchange changed.
“Obviously, the content of the story is so horrible, but Twitter’s reaction is another total thing,” Brockway said. “And then see the reaction: “Oh, it’s not as bad as we think “or” it’s going to bring “– it’s daunting otherwise. “
For Long, the two women’s accusations in the first article were astonishing.
“It was anything they gave me thinking, ‘Am I surrounded by other people who would protect me, whether I’m in the room or not?” she says. “I think my friends would, but it scared me because you never know.
The story of the moment, however, provoked another reaction.
“They make me angry,” Long says of the stories, “but the first one makes my center can and the moment slowly moves my skin. “
Although Washington is the only professional team recently accused of deeply rooted misogyny, Landry says stories that reveal widespread abuse within an organization force her into the omnipresence of women’s abuse.
“If it’s in Washington, you can in Indianapolis, Minnesota, New Orleans, etc. “And not just in football; this can in any game you need to play. »
Gerson, a senior at the University of Michigan, recently finds himself at the time of the year in michigan football speed, after arriving at his seat in the press gallery in his first season covering the team to locate a media member sitting in a chair he did not first think that he belonged to Gerson , she stopped dressing pink for the games. He says the pink idea made him look younger, so he opted for jewelry tones.
“I felt safer if I didn’t wear pink, that’s why I did,” Gerson says.
A selection of garments is an undeniable fit. But Long, who covers football at the University of Missouri, says the daily decisions women make to navigate the game world deserve to be highlighted.
“Avoiding obscene videos without women’s consent is a simple solution,” Long says. “But those are the smallest things: how you manage with women in the room, how you interact with them and the offspring or not, how you help grow their paintings or not. I feel it’s simple not to harass other people or attack other people. It’s simple to avoid very obviously bad things, but it’s the little things that are difficult. “
The Washington football team, which has been preaching a cultural replacement since Ron Rivera’s arrival, made tangible adjustments to the organization’s great things during the off-season. The team got rid of his 87-year-old nickname, “Redskins,” and hired Julie Donaldson as Washington also made history by appointing Jason Wright as the team’s new president, which made him the first black president in NFL history.
These settings serve as symbols of progress for the five women, but the replacement begins in the most sensible and Snyder remains the man in charge.
“I think men in the specific force feel a desire to get around the line and see how they can pass without having problems,” Landry says. “It is transparent that [Snyder] has no regrets. “
Leiker says it’s hard not to worry about Donaldson.
“Even if she’s in a position of power, there’ll be a guy above her,” Leiker says. “There will be someone superior to it in this organization. “
While the accusations in the Post articles are disturbing, Landry is encouraged by the fact that women felt step forward and says she also expects men to act as women’s allies in the future.
“This forces men to look at themselves and ask themselves, ‘Have I done anything that might be misunderstood?'” says Landry. I think male allies want to act as allies when it comes to harassment and sexual assault. I think men can be as much a component of replacement as women should protect it.
After the Post’s first article, the Washington football team hired an outdoor company to conduct an internal investigation of the organization. Since publishing the story of the moment, the NFL has intervened to conduct its own research.
Meanwhile, Long says he will continue to communicate with women in the industry to find out what they like about the sport. She will know what it’s like to have a story near her center and the satisfaction of having a vital verbal exchange with a Ella will suppress emotions and maintain them.
With conversations and women in the sports industry, Brockway is encouraged by the fact that she is not alone.
“The sports media will have to have its #MeToo,” Brockway says. “There are women in each and every facet of this industry, and each and every woman leads the crusade together. “
I’ve been covering the NFC East since I was a student at the College of the Holy Cross, where I focused on the New York Giants. I graduated from Northwestern’s Medill
I’ve been covering the NFC East ever since I was a student at the College of the Holy Cross, where I focused on the New York Giants. I graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, where I majored in sports media.