Women have become significantly more prominent and present in sports media. They’re on the sidelines, or they’re courtside. You can find them behind the anchor desk or right by the action in the booth. They’re talking, they’re writing, they’re reporting, and they’re killing it. That all to say: How much are they being embraced?
It isn’t enough to just be featured in this world. You have to be nurtured and put in the best positions to succeed. That’s done through years of hard work, positioning, and just determination to make everyone feel included.
Major League Baseball and how much the sport’s embraced women in media became the topic of conversation on ‘Short to the Point’ this week. ESPN’s Dani Wexelman joined host Jessica Kleinschmidt to discuss how women and baseball have worked with each other.
“Where on the scale do you think we are as far as women in sports? And I’m gonna make this more specific – women in baseball,” Kleinschmidt asked Wexelman. “Where are we as far as embracing women in covering this game?” she asked her, giving her a scale of 1 to 3 to decide on. She played it down the middle and stressed what she felt was missing right now.
“I’d say we’re at a 2,” Wexelman said. “I think maybe that’s the lame answer. I definitely don’t think we’re at a 1. I think we’ve come a long way; we have a lot farther to go. We need more women and female voices, I’d say, in higher positions. Right? We need more women on the radio; we need more women in broadcast booths. We need more women who are covering the game as beat reporters. It’s a really hard job.”
Wexelman praised Kleinschmidt, who works on the Oakland A’s beat. She showered praise on her and other beat reporters, something that Wexelman claimed she knew nothing about.
“The more they hear us, the louder we roar,” Wexelman said. “I know we’ll get to the 3. 100%. It’s never going to be perfect, it’s probably going to be 2.99999, it’s never going to be right there. But I don’t care about that.
“The point I like love to hammer home is that people think that we want more or extra or anything of that sort. Anything that is an adjective to ‘more than/above.’ We just want the same,” she said. “We want to exist in the space, to get paid what we deserve, get paid the same as our counterparts, and get treated the same. And get the same opportunities. We’re not asking for more. We’re here. Like, we’re not going anywhere.”
Through high water, the journey continues. Wexelham is on the money with what women in sports media are looking for. And she’s right: They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. So the goals will still remain the same.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022