#GAReads | Where Are All the Women In Play-by-Play Broadcasting?
“Where Are All the Women in Play-by-Play Broadcasting?”
…for most of sports broadcasting history, these roles have been filled by men. While women have broken into the industry through sideline reporting and analyst positions—Jessica Mendoza in MLB and Doris Burke for the NBA are two high-profile recent examples—the play-by-play role has thus far been most elusive. When I asked Kate Scott, a play-by-play broadcaster for the Pac-12 Network, why she thinks it’s taken so long for women to break into the play-by-play role, she said, “I didn’t even consider it until college, because that’s the first time I heard a woman [Mowins] calling a game. … That didn’t seem like an option. A lot of us [women] went into other aspects of the industry, like reporting.” If you can’t see it, how could you imagine being it?