There is a real lack of female representation in our sports coverage rnow & I think it’s a big problem.

(Yes, even when there is no sport. Especially because there is no sport, because women are disproportionately affected.)

A thread, sighs... 1/n https://twitter.com/izzywestbury/status/1251917257963442177

Across the sports pages of last Sunday’s nationals, 8 Johns wrote articles, as did 4 Neils (!) & a total of 7 women.

Of 166 sports articles (I know...) just 3 were on women’s sport (<2%).

Normally, female coverage & representation in print sports media is bad. This worse. 2/n

Also normally, the small no.s of female sports writers is hidden a bit by the relatively larger proportion of women in broadcast sports media.

Why more in broadcast? Many reasons - it’s a more visible role, so easier to hold broadcasters accountable & see change. Also,... 3/n

...there is probably a pretty-woman-fronting-the-sports-coverage-element to it (unfortunate but true), which you don’t get with a print byline.

It’s also easier to enter the broadcast media because it’s almost entirely freelance & self-employed, even at the top. 4/n

Contrast this to senior sports writers as decently-salaried employees. This is an almost exclusively male domain. Change is happening here, but slowly, and we’re not at a stage where it’s manifested in senior sports writing roles.

Many junior writing roles, however, where... 5/n

...there are (some) more women, are part-time (contractors, w/o employee benefits, either) and poorly paid.

So, the end game is: most women in sports media are in broadcast, &/or are freelance, and on insecure contracts.

So when a pandemic hits, and sport vanishes... 6/n

...so do the women covering it. No sport is broadcast and newspapers, who are suffering a big financial hit, scale back, dispensing of anyone who is not an employee.

Well boo hoo, you might think, some women have lost their jobs. So have many others.

The problem is, this... 7/n

...impacts not just the women covering sport, but the women playing it too.

All of the 3 articles on women’s sport last Sunday were written by women (of the 7).

Frustratingly, we remain at a stage where it is still almost exclusively women writing abt women’s sport. 8/n

Some notable exceptions but broadly, this is the case. Why? Meh. It’s not as tho men are incapable of watching women play sport, or learning abt it. It just isn’t done enough.

Nor is it encouraged by editors. Stereotyping, lazy assumptions, cheap commissioning all at play. 9/n

So with no sport, the (almost exclusively male) writers still with a job are writing about what they know. It’s human, to revert to default. I would. But it means articles on historical stories from an age when almost all coverage was of male sport. Articles on off-field... 10/n

...luxury lifestyles (so, male athletes), generous donations (again, only male sports stars with means to do so), big money takeovers & transfers.

It also, unfortunately, means all sports governance stories & planning for post-lockdown resumption is almost exclusively... 11/n

...through the guise of male sport. Take cricket as an example. The ECB highlight women’s cricket as a priority & I believe them. But on Friday, when they announced the 1 July resumption plans, it was one journalist per outlet at the virtual press conference.

So: men. 12/n

Who count among them some great journalists (friends, colleagues, role models). But if there are no women asking questions, challenging the governing body, we lose this perspective entirely. Sure, men can ask abt women’s sport but it’s less likely. Diversity of views,... 13/n

...diversity of outcomes. The science says so.

So, here we are. Few women covering sport, fewer women being covered.

And it’s alarming. Bcos, ironically, perhaps the biggest impact the pandemic will have in sport is on women’s sport, or the disruption to its development. 14/n

It has become increasingly clear that when sport resumes it will be to the big, short-term money making bits first, to make up for the big, short-term money loss.

And gender equality in sport is most definitely a long-term project. Neglect it now, during the stress, the... 15/n

...panic, and that will become the norm.

So there you go, employ more women, for the good times and the bad, for the benefit of all sport in the long-term.

THE END