Within the sports broadcasting world, women are neglected in the sports reporter profession. Although networks have attempted to diversify their reporting teams with regards to race, they have made little-to-no progress in terms of gender. A 2014 study, for example, shows that women made up less than 5% of news anchors and 14.4% of ancillary sports reporters.
When women are given these broadcasting jobs, they are subject to considerable harassment. Females sportscasters often get unwanted attention from this male-dominated audience, either angry and hate-fueled, or through obsessive stalking and sexual harassment. They face stalkers who call them in their hotel rooms, drop off gifts and write letters, or in the most severe cases, tamper with locks and video tape them. On the flip side, they also face aggressive hate messages on social media, and sometimes threats. Because of this, they use heightened security and often must take absurd precautions - getting off on a different floor of the hotel if in the elevator with fans, for example.
This is another realm of the sports broadcasting world in which females face discrimination and sexualization. Not only are they underrepresented in number, but they are faced with substantial challenges as a result of the institutional sexism present in sports networks.
Sources:
Branch, R. S. (2016, March 09). The Dangers of Being a Female Sportscaster. Retrieved May 05, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/sports/erin-andrews-dangers-of-being-female-sportscaster.html?_r=0
Writer, L. G. (2016, July 14). How Much Money Does a Sports Broadcaster Make? Retrieved May 05, 2017, from http://woman.thenest.com/much-money-sports-broadcaster-make-10354.html
When it comes to women in sports, TV news tunes out. (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2017, from https://news.usc.edu/82382/when-it-comes-to-women-in-sports-tv-news-tunes-out/