Australian sport has a certain sound. It fills the space with intensity. It’s the sound of the cheering crowd, the whistle, and the smash of a ball against a bat. It’s the familiar sound of boyish excitement. It’s a male voice, thick with emotion.
Flick through the channels on your TV and you’re unlikely to hear the voice of a female commentator. It’s a field that is dominated by men.
Women in sports media have gained a lot of ground. In the 1980s female sports journalists were rare. Fast-forward 30 years and sport savvy women are heading websites, radio shows and publications.
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Debbie Spillane was one of the original female voices to be included within the sporting landscape. She was the first, full-time female broadcaster to be hired by ABC Sport. It was 1984 and she was thrust into a field of men.
“I was usually the only woman at any press conference or in any press box, and I was treated as something of a novelty, or even an oddity or a joke,” she said.
“By the time my career ended it was commonplace to encounter other women in such situations.”
Spillane said the real glass ceiling for women is the commentary booth.
“Until women are trusted to be the person who describes the action, play by play, ball by ball, then women in sports media will always be second class citizens,” she said.
Professor David Rowe, a researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, argues this is because sport has come to define manliness.
“It has been somewhat of a bastion of masculinity, and there has been a resistance, quite a lot of it, to the involvement of women in sport,” he said.
“There is a clear gender hierarchy, and that makes it difficult for women to break through, to acquire the same sort of status.”
Women struggle to gain the cultural right to an opinion about sport. This is a big problem for aspiring female sports commentators. There are a handful of female sports commentators in Australia, a sprinkling at the ABC and a few on commercial TV, such as sports journalists Mel McLaughlin, Roz Kelly and ex-cricketer Mel Jones. But they are in the vast minority.
It’s a big problem for women like Brittany Carter. To gain commentary experience she had to find opportunities outside of her role at ABC’s sports radio program Grandstand.
“Obviously commentating is allocated to our senior and polished team members, so I realised I needed to try and obtain experience outside of the ABC,” she said.
Carter contacted Netball NSW to get advice on gaining the necessary experience. She was lucky enough to score the opportunity to call the NSW Premier Netball League for Bar TV sports.
Top Comments
Not so much to do about gender as it is experience. Now we have the AFLW comp I have no doubt more women will be commenting on the footy over the next few years.
When I listen to a commentator I want someone with experience playing the sport, not just watching it. Even with men calling you can hear the blokes with no idea as they have never played what they are trying to commentate on.
Overall, I'd agree here. I watch several sports and the commentators are usually former high level players who have an in-depth knowledge which is interesting to hear, so it's Jonathon Brown for AFL, Ricky Ponting for cricket and so forth.
Then there is another type of commentator, the I have not played before but I know stats, names and special adjectives and can talk alot which I will loosely term the Bruce McAveny category, so he describes a game but does not offer any particular insight. The McAvenies can get annoying to listen to.
In tennis, it is different and there are many female former players who are great at commentary whether it is a male or female match and is probably due to the number of excellent female players who have direct experience. I cannot remember her name right now, but there was a terrific female commentator for the cricket a few weeks ago who used to play at a high level and it was clear she knew what she was talking about.
It really does come down to experience in the sport. The womens AFL and NRL having only recently started so do not have that pool to draw from.