Why aren’t Women taken seriously in Sports Conversations and what we can do about it?

Joanne Roque
@JoanneSilva10

Gabby Logan at Twickenham 

A woman walks into a bar on a Saturday afternoon; she isn’t there to meet friends, her boyfriend or to drink the night away. Rather, it’s the Premier League weekend and her favourite team is playing. There are flat screens broadcasting the game and soon she finds herself surrounded by men, strangers to one another but yet cordial and comfortable with each other enough to agree and disagree about the game when necessary.

When a team scores some yell while others groan, after key plays and during commercial breaks, these fans become amateur sports analysts as some argue against the decision of the coaches and others for the brilliance of the players. Emotions are high and football jargon and assumed expertise is being thrown around.

It is in this space that the woman feels comfortable. She loves football, watches every game of her favorite team, understands the game of football, and has enough football knowledge to offer rational opinions and to critique others' commentary. However, when she decides to join in on the conversation at the bar, she quickly notices that she is not listened to as the other men are. Instead her critique is dismissed.

Guys assume her opinions are arbitrary, only repeated information from newspapers or that she is only interested because the players are good-looking men.

“Excuse me love, this is football not Jeremy Kyle, get back to the kitchen love”

They do not take her seriously as someone who is knowledgeable about the sport and as a result they do not take her sports opinion seriously, no matter how rational it may sound. The reason is not because of what she says but because she is a woman.

Although some may disagree with my judgment and ask that I produce some statistical, empirical evidence to back this claim up, to women sports fans, this experience sounds all too familiar. As a former college football player and football fanatic who watches all 38 Premier League games excluding the FA Cup, Capital One Cup or the Champions and European League games, every season, I have had the same experience as the woman in the bar. When I go to watch and talk sports with men, I am not taken seriously initially and sometimes not at all no matter how sound my arguments are.

I find that what I say is considered more speculative than what men say. As a result, I find myself asserting myself in conversations, being extra argumentative, and quoting stats as if it was an ESPN Numbers Don't Lie episode just so I can at least be heard and sound convincing. It's annoying, and makes me feel invisible, and I always feel treated unfairly because of my gender.

So how is this sexism and not merely ignorance on the part of the men? Philosopher Miranda Fricker has a concept she refers to as ‘epistemic injustice’.

She states that, “epistemic or testimonial injustice occurs when a hearer (some men), because of prejudice, do not take a speaker (woman sports fan) as seriously as they deserve to be.”

What makes this a ‘bad’ thing is when a hearer does this they are guilty of not respecting or affirming the dignity of the speaker instead the speaker has been undermined as a knower.

As individuals we all have certain kinds of knowledge. Part of our uniqueness as people is being able to be rational and to share knowledge. Also, opinion formation is a combination of not only knowledge but also our reflection and critique embodied in what we call our perspective. This is unique to us as individuals.

When we share knowledge and are dismissed not because of what we say but because of who we are, our individuality is disrespected and dignity withheld. So when someone refuses to listen to my opinion because I am a woman, the offense is not because they did not listen to my knowledge per se, rather because they did not listen to me. This experience not only harms me, but the hearer loses out on an opportunity to hear true and useful information.

We must remember people are not knowledgeable or smart because of their gender, ethnicity, age or social group; but due to the fact we acquire knowledge through study and experience. What makes Phil McNulty a good sports journalist is the knowledge he has cultivated between his ears, not because of what's in between his legs.

So what should we do if we find ourselves dismissing the knowledge of another because of their sex? We should remind ourselves that everyone deserves the chance to be listened to.

Fricker recommends that we practice giving high levels of credibility to groups we fear. For example, if we are honest, some of us are more prone to read a sports article written by a man than one written by a woman. She suggests we try to give a higher credibility to that woman writer, since implicitly we have already given her less for no reason other than because she is a woman.

We should remember that sports are not about men but about all genders, ethnicities, social groups and ages. Knowledge of sport can be learned by anyone.

What should women do when they find they are not being taken seriously because of their gender? I would suggest keep speaking anyway. In some cases dismissals are a form of silencing. The more you continue to speak the more you fight against silencing. Also know that you have a right to be a part of the conversation, although you may not feel welcomed.

In addition, as hard as this may sound, I would not take it personally. I would not take it as a lack of your ability to know or communicate but as their lack of ability to understand because of their prejudice.

Most importantly, I would suggest you make a complaint and contest it. This is in no way to make a scene or to turn a sports event into a feminist rally. However, you should contest the act in order to put a name to the injustice and to make the hearer aware of what they are doing. The more aware they are of what they are doing perhaps they will begin to change their habits.

As far as the media is concerned, it has come a long way with women and sports. BBC has a fair amount of women's representation. Gabby Logan is my favorite. However, it’s important to have more women as sports analysts of men sports and not merely as interviewers, anchors or experts at women's tennis and women's football. What this will show is that women have knowledge and an opinion to offer about sports in general and not merely or only when it concerns women specifically.

I hope the day when ‘a woman walks into a bar’ for a sports event, it will no longer sound like the beginning of a joke but an opportunity for us to practice taking what people have to say seriously regardless of their gender, race, or social standing.