USA TODAY International Edition
Women in media still face tough time
Nearly a half- century ago, Melissa Ludtke went to federal court merely so she could do her job.
Now, 43 years after a judge ruled that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn could not bar her from the Yankees clubhouse, Ludtke still frets over the conditions for women in sports, particularly those in the news media.
“I think the women covering sports today have it tougher than I did,” said Ludtke, who was 27 and working for Sports Illustrated in September 1978 when a district court ruled that denying Ludtke the same clubhouse access male journalists enjoyed violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection under the law.
“Back then if you wanted to say something to me you’d have to say it. When I compare it to now, I didn’t receive death threats. I received some letters. It wasn’t fun. It did cause me some pain. But it was nothing compared to what these women see now.”
That includes threatening and vile social media missives and, more currently, the 62 consecutive text messages – some of them explicit – that a foreign reporter received in 2016 from baseball executive Jared Porter, then the director of pro scouting for the Cubs.
Porter eventually ascended to the ranks of Mets general manager, until the journalist he harassed came forward with voluminous evidence of his abusive and lewd behavior.
Porter was fired on Jan. 19, just 37 days after he was named Mets GM, a swift resolution that created the impression tolerance for such behavior is minimal.
Ludtke, now retired and working on what she says is her final book, can see the through- line from the micro- and macro- aggressions she faced breaking into the business and the conditions that created the Porter situation.
Certainly, Ludtke had it rough, first being barred from doing her job, facing friendly fire from fellow journalists and accusations she sought locker room access merely to leer at men.
She watches from afar and, despite decades of progress, sees a regressive modern landscape.
“They have to, because of their jobs, be on social media,” said Ludtke of today’s women in media. “You cover a beat, you have to have a Twitter. So yes, I read the tweets. They’re really disheartening.
“And for what? For giving their opinion on sports? That’s enough for people to wish that you die, that you get raped? Really? You either laugh or cry, one or the other. But it does end up taking its toll and I don’t think there’s a woman out there who doesn’t say it takes its toll.”
It is something of a paradox, in that women are making significant strides within male- dominated spaces in the industry – be it as NFL position coaches, NBA assistants or as major league coaches or minor league hitting coordinators.
And then there is Kim Ng, hired by the Miami Marlins in December as the first woman general manager in Major League Baseball, after dozens of interviews over three decades.
While Ng’s hiring was hailed as a bellwether event for women in sports, her many snubs likely reinforced an unstable, even unsafe, environment for those trying to break through in front offices, press boxes and PR departments.
“Hiring women to be GMs might be a good place to start,” says Ludtke. “One team’s figured it out. It took almost four decades of ( Ng) being around to figure that out. She had a lot of talent, and a lot of interviews, but didn’t lead to being hired until recently. But why not? When you have a minority of women who are viewed, by the people in power, of being less than, it puts every one of those women in vulnerable positions.
“We know this. We know sexual harassment is not about sex but about power and control. I think that’s one place you have to come at it. Otherwise, it seems to continue to go on – in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street, in video game making. There are no simple answers.”
Porter’s accuser’s account of her internal struggle – the difficulty sleeping, the self- blame, and the eventual return to her own country and subsequent exit out the business – rang familiar for Ludtke.
Nowadays, women can seek support from organizations such as the Association for Women in Sports Media and also identify allies on the same social media channels that surface so much venom.
Porter’s victim, new to the U. S., may not have easily accessed those avenues of support and admits she was taken aback given the ostensibly more progressive attitude toward women here compared to her native country.
“I want to say to her – this is still happening here,” says Ludtke. “There can be a women’s empowerment movement yet this can still happen – two things can exist. When scholars are asked why don’t women stay in the industry for so long, they will tell you, it’s the culture of both the newsroom and the social media they can’t stay with.
“They ask, why should I do this job? Is this really a way that I want to make a living?”
And most departures mean the loss of livelihood and perhaps a lifelong passion. Ludtke grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, the daughter of professors, including a mother raised in the shadow of Fenway Park who scored Red Sox games off the radio and documented their seasons in scrapbooks.
That’s why Ludtke calls her career “an inheritance,” as opposed to a vocation.
Decades later, only the battleground has changed.
In Ludtke’s time, it was through the courts and legislation: The passage of Title IX in 1972. Maria Pepe’s 1973 lawsuit against Little League Baseball after she was barred from playing. Billie Jean King fighting the USTA for equal pay in 1973.
A few years later, it was Ludtke, whose legal victory ensured women after her could ply their trade.
Yet subsequent years proved that laws can’t stop the goal posts from moving, nor exhume toxicity from the workplace. Women have fought through the appropriate channels. The onus for more meaningful change now rests elsewhere.
“I often will also say that in some ways, I did what women did in the ’ 70s – I went to court and changed the law,” she said. “What’s been harder to change over the decades are the attitudes. That’s what you find out – you celebrate the legal win and it’s, ‘ Well, we took care of that!’
“No, you haven’t. Not until the attitudes change.”