As professional women’s hockey enters a new era, the women behind the scenes in sports continue to be disrespected by their male peers.
On August 15, PHWA member and Daily Faceoff podcast co-host Jason Gregor made a guest appearance on the Edmonton AM radio show with Mark Connelly and Tara McCarthy to discuss the upcoming sports radio station Sports 1440.
During the show, Connelly asked Gregor about the future station’s staff.
“What about women,” he asked. “I mean, women have become a big part of sports. Right now, with the Women’s World Cup on right now – I don’t see any women in your roster. Is that something that’s coming? Because there’s a lot of women’s sports fans out there too.”
Gregor’s response was initially dismissive: “Well, there’s women’s sports fans but a lot of women’s sports fans have told me they don’t need to hear a woman to be a sports fan.”
When Connelly clarified, “You’re not gonna have any women on the air?” Gregor confirmed.
“Not as regular hosts, no,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t think it matters.”
The latter statement was, unsurprisingly, ill-received by many sports media figures.
McCarthy herself took to Twitter later that day to express her disappointment with Gregor’s remarks, saying she felt “disappointed, angry and sad sitting there in the studio. Representation matters. I hope he’ll rethink that perspective someday.”
Meghan Chayka, the data scientist who co-founded Stathletes, shared the simple sentiment that “There should be more women in hockey… Don’t accept the status quo.”
Despite Gregor’s stated indifference regarding representation and inclusion of women in sports, women reporters, analysts and broadcasters have only become more prominent and successful.
Alison Lukan and Piper Shaw are television broadcasters for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken; Lukan is an analyst and sportswriter and Shaw also does broadcast work for the Seattle Storm.
Lukan also hosts a popular podcast, Too Many Men, with Bleacher Report writer Sara Civian and sports business and data analysis expert Shayna Goldman of The Athletic.
Other women-helmed endeavors like The Broadscast podcast and the To Hockey, With Love newsletter, as well as countless individual women who write about, present on, study, analyze and, of course, play sports help to bring about inclusion and provide a broader diversity of perspectives to the sports industry, in spite of the insistence by some that it remain male-dominated.
Stay tuned for more NHL content, including off-season moves and prospect updates.
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