For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to work in sports. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I was little I would’ve said David Beckham or Mia Hamm. I’ve loved playing and watching sports since I was little so I knew I always wanted to pursue a job in sports whether it was physical therapy, a professional athlete, trainer, etc. Now that I’m actually making that dream come true and working to achieve my goals, I realized being a woman and working in sports is incredibly difficult. Here’s why:
Men never believe me when I tell them I know sports. I don’t love every sport but I do know enough about each sport to where I could hold a conversation about it. When I do tell them I like hockey, baseball, football, soccer, etc. immediately I’m quizzed until I’m wrong about something. Even if I could name every player in the league and the new draft picks I still know nothing apparently. Sometimes people just assume that because I’m a girl I don’t know sports so they treat me like I have no idea what a baseball is (which has happened before) even though I have been a statistician for a baseball team for two years now.
The biggest problem with being a woman in sports is not only being treated like we know nothing about sports, is men. Men love to assume 90 percent of the time. They assume we don’t know sports and we only care about what the majority of women care about but usually we don’t. They also assume that all we want out of our jobs is to meet players, date them and marry them or whatever. Let me tell you, I love hockey more than I love any athlete I’ve ever followed in my entire life. What I want to do with my career and my life is to make people fall in love with the sport just like I did. Not try and land Steven Stamkos or some other athlete. I am guilty of saying “I’d love to marry so and so” yes I would love to marry Bryce Harper or Calum Chambers or even Steven Stamkos but honestly I care about my career more than I care about meeting the players.
Lastly, wanting to work in sports as a woman is hard because we are women. Women in any field are still not treated equally. You look at the CEO, CMO, CFO, the GM, pretty much any high ranking job on a sports team, each position is usually filled by a man. Men have dominated the sports industry for pretty much ever. Male athletes alone dominate women athletes and when it comes to the business side it's exactly the same. Because I am a woman I have to work harder and prove myself that I am good and that I am the best person for the job.
I love sports. I love everything about them; I know that this is what I was meant to do and I will work as hard as I need to, to be the best. Even though there are times where I get treated like I don’t know sports, or people assume my intentions for wanting to work in sports, I still will do whatever it takes to have my dream job. Being a woman and working in sports is hard, but if it wasn’t hard, is the job really worth it?
