Survey finds women overlooked in newspaper sports departments

University Park, Pa. -- Although U.S. newsrooms have been criticized in recent years for failing to employ and promote racial minorities, the employment of women in newspaper sports departments remains an even bigger problem, according to a new study.

Only about 11 percent of full-time employees in sports at the nation's largest newspapers are women, according to a survey by the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State. Meanwhile, women are employed in far larger numbers in other parts of the newsroom. According to data from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 38 percent of newsroom employment is of women.

"It's a stark contrast between news and sports," said Marie Hardin, associate director of the center. "Almost one-third of the newsrooms we surveyed had no women in their sports departments."

Racial minorities do not fare much better than women, Hardin said. According to the center's study -- a telephone survey of 181 of the largest papers in the United States -- minorities comprise only about 12 percent of sports department employees. About one quarter of sports departments reported no racial minorities.

Although Hardin said that number is still low, it's closer to the rest of the newsroom, where the ASNE reports minorities make up about 13 percent of employees.

"When you walk from news into sports, you'll see slightly less racial diversity. But you'll see far, far fewer women," Hardin said.

Women make up about 7 percent of supervisors in sports departments, much lower than their employment as supervisors in the rest of the newsroom (35 percent). That could be part of the reason women's sports continue to receive paltry coverage that often plays on sexual stereotypes, Hardin said.

Although part of the reason fewer women are employed in sports departments may be that fewer are interested in covering sports than men, Hardin said that cannot fully explain the disparity. She said there is plenty of interest among women in sports. According to a readership study published by the Newspaper Association of America last year, upwards of 27 percent of sports section readers are women. Hardin also cited the Center for Sports Journalism, where 37 percent of the students accepted into the program since it started in 2003 have been women. The center provides training for students who want to enter sports journalism careers.

Still, the idea that sports is a male domain has lingered inside newsrooms, she said. According to a survey of sports editors published earlier this year, many believe women are naturally less athletic and less interested in sports than are men, and 41 percent said they did not feel obligated to recruit and hire women.

This survey shows that racial minorities are almost as welcome in sports departments as they are elsewhere in the newsroom. They are employed less often as supervisors in sports departments (8 percent) than the ASNE reports for the overall newsroom (11 percent). Hardin said this may be a reflection of racial stereotypes in sport that cast minorities as more fit to be players and less fit to be leaders (such as coaches).

"Racial minorities have made progress as participants in big-time sports, and that's helped them make inroads into sports departments," Hardin said. "But they need better opportunities for leadership."

The telephone survey was conducted in April by Center for Sports Journalism students. All newspapers with sports departments in the top 200 for circulation were called; 181 participated. Survey results were presented last week at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport in Winston-Salem, N.C.