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Female sports reporters were once showered with abuse in locker rooms, but there’s a new attitude today
Many Detroiters have vivid memories of encounters with the city’s star athletes. Susan Dise remembers Kirk Gibson.
The Channel 4 photographer was covering sports for the station in the 1980s — one of very few female journalists assigned to that beat. She’d heard Gibson was known for loudly proclaiming the presence of female reporters in the locker room by using a crass term.
“As we’re going in, I hear him say it, quite loudly,” Dise recalls. “When we’re finished with interviews, I walked up to him on my own and, quietly because I didn’t want to make a scene, asked him if he was confused and thought that was some term of endearment that he was comfortable using around his wife or mother. He started screaming about how [women reporters] shouldn’t be in there, making a big ruckus about it. I just turned around and walked away.”
The incident made the news. But it was par for the course for the pioneering women sports journalists in Detroit who entered athletes’ lockers rooms in the early days after the Ludtke court decision — the federal lawsuit, filed in 1977 by Sports Illustrated’s Melissa Ludtke against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn — that resulted in locker-room doors being opened to women reporters.
That decision came down just in time for the 1979 baseball season. Anne Doyle, daughter of sportscaster Vince Doyle, had been hired in December 1978 as a sports reporter at the CBS affiliate in Detroit. She immediately met with Tigers General Manager Jim Campbell.
“I remember sitting in his office and, of course, he was very gracious about me covering the team, until I mentioned the locker room,” Doyle says. “At that point the whole conversation changed. He stuck a cigar in my face and told me, ‘Over my dead body you’ll go in that locker room.’ [After the Ludtke decision], I went back down to his office with my cameras, and said, ‘So, Jim, you’re still standing.’ I think he was popping Tums.”
But gaining access equal to their male peers was just the beginning. Women sports journalists had a long way to go before they could walk into a locker room without heart-pumping anxiety about what awaited them. Reporters describe sweaty jock straps thrown at their heads, athletes snapping towels at them, and giving interviews stark naked.
It was a Detroit sports team that was the last holdout to grant female reporters equal access. In 1983, the Detroit Free Press sued the Lions in U.S. District Court for barring sports photographer Mary Schroeder from entering the locker room.
“In 1983, there were 126 professional sports teams; 125 let women in the locker room,” says Schroeder, now a picture editor and photographer at The Freep.
“The Lions did not. Monte Clark was the coach. Russ Thomas was the general manager. The judge ruled either you let everyone in, including women, or else you close the locker room. So they closed the locker room to everyone. The next Sunday, the glares from all the reporters were like, ‘How dare you do this?’ ”
Clark was fired in 1984, and the next year the locker room was open to all reporters. But, like Schroeder, Dise and Doyle say some of the hostility in the early years came from male colleagues, some of whom resented the women’s presence.
But they also recall male reporters, editors, and athletes who urged them on. Doyle remembers Ernie Harwell regaling her with stories and giving her the inside scoop on players. And Pistons broadcaster George Blaha gave her her first job out of college.
“George Blaha was fantastic to me,” Doyle says. “In terms of Detroit sports people who really helped, [his] name goes right up to the top of the list.”
Today, locker rooms are less rowdy places. In fact, reporters say the system works better when players hold a press conference right after the game or shower and change after media interviews.
Dave Hogg, who has covered the Detroit Shock as a stringer for the Associated Press since their first game in 1998, says reporters enter the locker room where the players, still in uniform, are waiting at their lockers.
“We get about 20 minutes to talk to them, and they shower after that,” he says. “It works great. We get access to all the players, and we don’t have a situation where we’ve got somebody like a Kobe Bryant or a LeBron [James] who’s going to make us wait 45 minutes.”
Hogg says he sees a difference in how women reporters are treated in the locker room. “It used to be guys would just wander around the locker room naked and give interviews naked,” he says. “It was uncomfortable for [the male reporters], let alone the women. I think there’s been a huge change in male athletes getting used to women in the locker room. Most guys will come out of the shower with a towel, go to their locker, and immediately start getting dressed.”
Detroit has emerged as one of the most hospitable large sports markets in the country for women. There are remaining differences, however.
“When I first got to Detroit, I had to earn everyone’s respect in the locker room,” says WDIV-TV’s Katrina Hancock. “We as female journalists have to work 10 times harder than a man to get that respect.”
Nonetheless, she says, “Detroit’s probably one of the top 10 markets to have a ton of women in the media. You go to different cities and see one here and one there.”
Jennifer Hammond, Fox-2 sports reporter, agrees, saying Detroit has a sorority of supportive sports journalists. “We’ve all gone through a bit of the wringer to get to this point,” she says, “just being tested a bit more.”
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Reader Comments:
First off while the comparision to health care is often used, the difference is most of the time unless its an emergency, you choose your health care provider. Most of the articles I see are from the reporters point of view. The view that they have to put up with this or that, that they belong their becasue it is their job. But the choice is the reporters, not the athelete. While some, maybe many or most don't care, you have to know that some of the men have modesty issues. What about them? To further (and in referring to you I mean reporters in general) your ambitions you are entering into what society normally defines as a same gender environment. Do you feel at any level guilty that you are forcing them to sacrifice their privacy so you can achieve your ambitions? They are not given a choice or a voice.
Second, you must also understand that if these men protested they would be labeled sexist just as twins did. In the past if a coach or player protested they were labeled sexist, or the perpatrator, the issue wasn't they were modest, it was they were sexist and instead of being the victim, they were the violator. Since the media controled what was printed, they portrayed the men as bad or evil and they were the victim. Accepting what is happening doesn't mean they are OK with it. Do you recognize this or disagree?
Do you also realize that some of it has nothing to do with the reporter being a professional. You seem to be just that, but you are also the one who is fully clothed invading their privacy. Society has long defined areas that are single gender restrooms, locker rooms, showers, etc...it was a female judge who removed male locker rooms from that. Do you honestly feel female reporters would be just as accepting if the roles were reversed and they were the ones trying to shower after exertion and males were trying to interview them?
Last, the double standard is pretty obvious. I think it is even more disturbing when it is college. While some argue its becasue no one cares about female sports...the Lady Vols would probably take exception. In the college environment where females are allowed in male locker rooms, but males are not allowed in female locker rooms...even though female reporters may acknowledge the issue....I have never heard of a single one fighting the issue or accusing or labeling the college as being sexist. Why do female reporters attack this obvious double standard or sexist practice with the zeal that (and again I am referring to the profession) that they get when trying to gain "equal" access to male locker rooms. Should not the atheletes as well as the reporters be treated equally.
The law should have never been established letting the female reporters into a male locker room in the first place. The female judge that make it law had to be insane (or a card carrying feminist). I completely understand the equal access issue, and it’s a valid one, BUT, in no other segment of our society do we allow the opposite gender into changing rooms or bathrooms, I think there's a name for that...VOYEUR. If they want to be called PROFESSIONAL SPORTS JOURNALISTS then be PROFESSIONAL and give these men their privacy when naked and showering. Privacy is guaranteed by the fourth and eighth amendments, especially against being viewed naked when showering and changing clothes. Feminists have done good things for oppressed women, but they went too far with this issue. Men have never and will never be given EQUAL ACCESS to a woman's bathroom or locker room while there's a single naked female inside. The feminists that broke the door down and pushed their way into men's locker rooms for a free peep show should be ashamed of themselves. It's pretty blatant the double standard that exists for men in this society. If the females persist in disregarding these men's privacy issues and the teams won't do anything to protect their privacy the only other option is the courts. The government has done something about these issues. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to be there is a Title VII exception for consumer privacy and a bona fide job qualification acknowledging that in some positions where bodily privacy was important (when genitals are exposed) it is perfectly ok to hire or staff same gender as in bathrooms, locker rooms, hospitals, etc. Title V11 attests that personal bodily privacy ESPECIALLY WHEN NAKED trumps gender rights in hiring. An example is men being excluded from Labor & Delivery in hospitals to protect female patients modesty. This same law applies in the case of women invading men’s personal bodily privacy when naked. I can list several court cases where women's equal employment rights and equal access issues were overthrown by the courts when it invaded men's personal privacy when naked. It’s called a BFOQ or Bona fied Occupational Qualification. Get out of the men’s locker rooms ladies (and I use that term loosely) and give these men the respect and dignity they deserve while showering and dressing. Give them the same respect and dignity that the men of our society afford you. You can wait till the men are showered and fully clothed to interview them. It appears the simple solution to regain privacy and morals is to not let anyone in the locker rooms.I can name one Professional Female Sports Reporter, Hannah Storen, sports director of KSRR-FM in Houston, Texas. This is a quote from her:
"I feel it is demeaning for me to walk into a locker room with 60 naked guys," she says. "I do my interviews in the hallway. . . . I feel the players respect me more and I have always gotten great interviews."
She apparently gives men the same respect and dignity that she see’s men of our society give to women, bless you Hannah for your convictions.
To bad the majority of female sports reporters can’t self regulate themselves on one of the most basic of principles in our society; to respect the opposite genders privacy when naked
Lefteddie
The law should have never been established letting the female reporters into a male locker room in the first place. The female judge that make it law had to be insane (or a card carrying feminist). I completely understand the equal access issue, and it’s a valid one, BUT, in no other segment of our society do we allow the opposite gender into changing rooms or bathrooms, I think there's a name for that...VOYEUR. If they want to be called PROFESSIONAL SPORTS JOURNALISTS then be PROFESSIONAL and give these men their privacy when naked and showering. Privacy is guaranteed by the fourth and eighth amendments, especially against being viewed naked when showering and changing clothes. Feminists have done good things for oppressed women, but they went too far with this issue. Men have never and will never be given EQUAL ACCESS to a woman's bathroom or locker room while there's a single naked female inside. The feminists that broke the door down and pushed their way into men's locker rooms for a free peep show should be ashamed of themselves. It's pretty blatant the double standard that exists for men in this society. If the females persist in disregarding these men's privacy issues and the teams won't do anything to protect their privacy the only other option is the courts. The government has done something about these issues. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to be there is a Title VII exception for consumer privacy and a bona fide job qualification acknowledging that in some positions where bodily privacy was important (when genitals are exposed) it is perfectly ok to hire or staff same gender as in bathrooms, locker rooms, hospitals, etc. Title V11 attests that personal bodily privacy ESPECIALLY WHEN NAKED trumps gender rights in hiring. An example is men being excluded from Labor & Delivery in hospitals to protect female patients modesty. This same law applies in the case of women invading men’s personal bodily privacy when naked. I can list several court cases where women's equal employment rights and equal access issues were overthrown by the courts when it invaded men's personal privacy when naked. It’s called a BFOQ or Bona fied Occupational Qualification. Get out of the men’s locker rooms ladies (and I use that term loosely) and give these men the respect and dignity they deserve while showering and dressing. Give them the same respect and dignity that the men of our society afford you. You can wait till the men are showered and fully clothed to interview them. It appears the simple solution to regain privacy and morals is to not let anyone in the locker rooms.I can name one Professional Female Sports Reporter, Hannah Storen, sports director of KSRR-FM in Houston, Texas. This is a quote from her:
"I feel it is demeaning for me to walk into a locker room with 60 naked guys," she says. "I do my interviews in the hallway. . . . I feel the players respect me more and I have always gotten great interviews."
She apparently gives men the same respect and dignity that she see’s men of our society give to women, bless you Hannah for your convictions.
To bad the majority of female sports reporters can’t self regulate themselves on one of the most basic of principles in our society; to respect the opposite genders privacy when naked
Lefteddie