Women in sport might just get a little more attention when US network CBS launches the first all-women sports show next month.
We need to talk, which is set to debut on CBS Sports on September 30, has been in the making for over a year and will feature a core panel of notable CBS Sports announcers, with other contributors including former athletes Laila Ali, Lisa Leslie, Dara Torres, Swin Cash, Summer Sanders and Amy Trask, the first female CEO in the NFL.
The show will also feature two female producers, while Suzanne Smith, the only woman currently producing or directing NFL games, will direct the show.
CBS Sports president, David Berson, regards the show as a “cultural pivot point”.
“I think it’s long overdue,” he told the AP. “We’re excited to be the home for it, and all these women have such meaningful roles already within CBS or in various other places. I know they’re all excited.”
It’ll be interesting to see how an all-female panel might fare, particularly with audiences. Women are still hopelessly underrepresented in all facets of sport, with female sports accounting for just 10% of Australia media coverage.
And for those women who work as commentators in the industry, the level of sexism aimed at them can be horrifying.
Case in point: the treatment of sports reporter Erin Molan, which last week proved that despite being a “sports mad” country, we’re also a little bit mad still when it comes to the treatment of women who talk about sport.
Last week, Channel Nine reporter and NRL Footy Show regular, Molan abruptly quit her role as sports reporter for the Kyle and Jackie O show after being bombarded with sexist and inappropriate questions live on air.
Appearing in a segment on the show called Let’s get to know Erin, she was asked by callers how many sportsmen she had “been with”, whether she had a boob job and was told by Sandilands that “No one is listening” to her on the Footy Show and that her siblings were “probably coke heads”
For her part, Molan used the episode to dispense some worthwhile advice to young women on the Footy Show.
“To every young woman out there and every person out there, you determine your worth and if you feel you’re ever in a situation where you are not being treated with respect or the way you are being treated is not acceptable to you then you have every right to walk away and every right to stand up for yourself,” Molan said.
Do you think Australia is ready for an all-female sporting panel?