How to thrive as a woman in sports journalism

Journalism is notoriously one of the most fast paced and brutal industries in the UK, and an industry that for a long time has been relatively male dominated.

Sports journalism is often fronted by men, with male pundits, male reporters, male editors, male photographers and more. In the last five years though, especially in football, more and more women are taking on men and showing that women can do it just as good. Our screens have been refreshed by the likes of Alex Scott, Emma Hayes and Jacqui Oatley, but there is more to come.

That’s where hopefully I come in. I’m currently studying Journalism and graduating this year. We’ve learnt everything from writing news stories, to shooting footage and making packages to designing our own magazines. I’ve interviewed footballers, bird watchers, small business owners, farmers, a man who dressed up as Marge Simpson for charity and even drag queens.

I have been a football fan since I was kid, supporting my home team of Manchester City. My dad owns signed shirts from Sergio Aguero and David Silva, my cousin dreams of playing for City one day and my granddad has had a season ticket for as long as I can remember. My parents’ first question about my current girlfriend wasn’t “why are you dating a woman?” but “what football team does she support?”

Getting into sports journalism felt natural, but how was a different question. The opportunity to work with Bradford City Women’s Football Club came up out of nowhere, when I was looking for work experience and it wasn’t long until I was shaking hands with the relatively small media team. The club needed someone to attend game to write match reports, interview players, coaches and more. What I didn’t expect was for Bradford’s local paper, The Telegraph and Argus, to ask me to send over my work for their website and newspapers.

This was a big deal for me, I had never had my work published outside of the university’s journalism website but seeing my work online with my name at top was incredible.

The work is often tough, and the deadlines are tight. I’ve been up writing match reports at one in the morning some days to make the morning deadline, but to see your work in writing is always amazing. To see people interact with my work on social media is even better. I remember one time where the Bantams ladies played Leeds United at Valley Parade for a league derby. It was the best game I’d seen in a while, and it was even better when we won 1-0. After I published my article with the results, there were comments from supporters asking if the women could play on the weekend instead of the men’s team!

Since joining the team at Bradford City Women I’ve learned how to edit videos for social media, how to do sports photography, help produce a set of interviews for Twitter on Women’s football weekend, and now run the club’s TikTok. I’ve had the opportunity to create content at Bradford City’s stadium Valley Parade, be featured in newspapers and the men’s matchday programme.

Apart from football, I am currently working on my end of studies project, which is an in-depth investigation into the LGBTQ+ community and the hate within the community. As someone who is LGBT myself, this is something I am really interested in and hoping to bring to light.

For me, the world of sports journalism -particularly football journalism- still has a lot of growing to do before women journalists, pundits and others are truly accepted. There will always be someone who will look at a female sports journalist and ask, “do you know the offside rule”. I’ve heard stories of female pundits having more knowledge of the teams, or players than the male pundits, and that’s hopefully what I want to do: to show people up. It doesn’t affect me though; I love what I do too much to care about what anyone else thinks.

I could very easily see myself working for a big football club like Manchester City writing match reports, doing live reporting, interviewing players and coaches, creating content and more. But I could also see myself working at somewhere like VICE, LadBible or something similar.

If you want to get into sports journalism, there are always plenty of small football clubs, rugby clubs and more always needing help with social media and match reports. It’s so rewarding, but don’t let anyone say you can’t do it.