Published Article

HeadlineFemale broadcasters in football: a man’s world?  

Short HeadlineFemale broadcasters in football: a man’s world?  

StandfirstLast year, female pundits worked at the men’s World Cup for the first time. There is a rise in women working in the broadcasting industry. But is the sport really changing or is this just surface-level?

In the UK today, football is watched, listened to and attended by millions of fans. Commentators, reporters and presenters help shape the coverage.

With Barclays just announcing a £10 million investment the women’s game, many feel the male-dominated sport is changing.

Despite this attention, women still face challenges, from abuse to ingrained attitudes from fans and even professionals. I spoke to several women in the field.

The only ‘lass in the press box’

Eleanor Oldroyd currently presents BBC 5 Live’s Friday Sports Panel. She started reporting from stadium press boxes in 1986. Back then, she was often the only woman. She tells me about how she was viewed as a novelty.

“There was almost that feeling that if you messed up as a woman, you messed up for the whole of womankind and it was a setback for all women if you made a mistake”, she says.

“There was an underlying implication that maybe you were going to use your feminine wiles to get these exclusive. Or maybe even that you were actually secretly sleeping with the players or sleeping with the managers!”

During her first reporting job at Sunderland AFC, she was interviewed at half-time by BBC Newcastle. They told her they were just surprised to see “a lass in the press box.”

Abuse online

In 1921, women were banned from playing football by the Football Association for 30 years. There is a sense women are still playing catch up in the industry. According to a study by Amnesty International, every 30 seconds an abusive comment is made towards a woman on Twitter.

Here are some of the tweets received by female broadcasters on Twitter:

That last tweet was sent to Jacqui Oatley. In 2007, she was the first ever female commentator for Match of the Day. She is an ambassador for Women in Football and often speaks out about how to deal with the online threats she is still facing:

“If it’s nasty, vile, pure disgustingness, you don’t even entertain it, you just block it,” she advises.

“If it’s tongue-in-cheek, you can reply, highlight it, have a bit of a laugh, make them look a bit silly, you’re not being nasty back, you’re not playing their game. But you’ve made a point. And sometimes you just ignore it and you don’t give them the oxygen”

Do men face the same issues?

So what do the male broadcasters think? I put the question to Mark Chapman, a high-profile presenter for Match of the Day 2. He tells me a lot of people working in broadcasting experience it.

“I can’t imagine how hurtful some of it is for them, really. But a lot of us go through it. What’s probably different is the abuse that might be aimed at me is never aimed at my gender or my race.”

Mark is also studying to be a sporting director. Currently, women make up just 7% of directors boards in English football. I ask him if an increase in female executives would bring about more respect.

“It would be a start. I think boards in general, from what I’ve been reading and studying, need to be more diverse. That means more women, it means more BAME, it means younger people. It’s really important because of unconscious bias. That’s the problem.”

A call for structural change on boards

This bias becomes clear when looking at research. Only 7% of all English clubs have a woman as a CEO. According to the government, there is a new requirement for boards to meet a target of 30% female. I asked MP Julie Elliott, a member of the Sports Committee, what she thinks.

“The skills to be a CEO, a finance director… they’re not based on whether you’re male or female at all. It’s about your ability to do the job,” she tells me.

“There is definitely an inbuilt bias within clubs against women holding positions at board level”

“It’s not about governments setting targets. But actually the organisations themselves need to look at what they’re doing and take priority over this issue”

Changing ingrained attitudes

But women are making a mark. Hayley McQueen, Lynsey Hooper and Kait Borsay set up the Offside Rule podcast to give themselves a platform to express their opinion.

Lynsey Hooper says that people are more wise to what they can’t say anymore.

“They might not say what they used to say to people like me years ago but it doesn’t mean to say that they’re not thinking it. Are we making people be very cautious and not actually changing their attitude? That’s the only way we’re going to get change, if they actually change the way they think”

However, when I speak to BBC reporter and Watford FC stadium announcer Emma Saunders, she tells me that it is no longer a man’s world.

“I think the landscape has totally changed. There is very much a female presence to be seen in football clubs now”

So It’s clear that women in roles from commentating, to pitch-side reporting, to presenting, is on the rise. But, despite women speaking up, inequality and accusations of tokenism still exist.

Perhaps more numbers on boards could help change attitudes. But for now, we are still living in a male-dominated world.