How often do you watch sports?
Now, if you are a sports fan, could you please think about how often you find female sports in the media? If you are from North Macedonia, then the answer would probably be rarely to almost never, right?
Unfortunately, in North Macedonia, there is a significant gender disparity when it comes to representation and recognition of female athletes. We are not talking only about the lack of women participating in sports or the almost non-existing number of female athletes in leadership roles in sports teams, but also about the lack of media coverage of female athletes and female teams in general.
Don’t really believe it? Probably we wouldn’t too, it simply doesn’t seem realistic.
But, what if we say that almost 80% of the media coverage is devoted to male sports. Does it seem more real now?
And what if we tell you that over 82% of the sports presenters are men?
Probably now we can all say that this limited media coverage of women’s sports shows only that male sports and athletes in general are more valued and interesting for the public. But, is it truly the public’s opinion? We don’t think so. We do believe that we all want to have a bigger representation of female athletes and follow more female sports teams and their achievements.
Once we realized the underrepresentation of female athletes in the media, we started looking for information regarding the number of female sports journalists on our national television. We found out that around 80% of sports journalists on MRT 1 are men, the percentage is even higher on MRT 2, where 88% of sports journalists are men. When we thought we couldn’t be more surprised, we found out that there are no female sports journalists on MRT 3. Shocking, right?
But, wait, there is more.
How many female sports experts have you heard of? None? Probably, because on MRT 1 over 95% of sports experts are men, and there are no female sports experts featured on MRT 2 and 3. The situation is not better in the private TV stations.
Having all of this in mind, we can easily say that we have a big issue to deal with. Not only because female athletes and sports teams deserve recognition and validation, but also because as a country we need to show future female athletes, journalists and sports experts that they are equally important. By working on this issue and promoting greater inclusivity, we can pave the way for future generations of female athletes to thrive and be celebrated for their achievements.
