Women in sports journalism in Malta

Abstract

This study investigates the participation of females in the sports journalism department in Maltese media organisations. It also researches whether the situation in Malta reflects the problem of gender inequality which one comes across in various countries.Eight female sports journalists and three sports editors were interviewed using in-depth semi-structured interviews in order to try to analyse the current situation. The research found that most female journalists only experienced gender inequality at the beginning of their careers, as they were questioned on their knowledge in sports by their male counterparts. Lack of opportunities in this industry are mostly because sports journalism departments in Malta are small. Malta’s society does not encourage girls to take up sports since women end up shouldering more of the parenting burden. Consequently, once a woman is married and has children, she has to give up on her career. Coverage of women’s sports is minimal in comparison to the coverage of men’s sportssince the level of interest of the former is extremely low. Sports editors in Malta are all men, and they mostly think women are not interested in sports journalism. Most female sports journalists also say that men tend to know more about sports than women. They emphasise that sports journalism is still entirely dominated by men and women in sports is still seen as a taboo. Much has still to be done in order to achieve equality in numbers between men and women.