FORUM Women sportscasters: navigating a masculine domain Max V. Grubb a * and Theresa Billiot b a School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA; b College of Mass Communications, Electronic Media and Communications Department, Texas Tech University, TX, USA (Received 3 May 2008; final version received 7 December 2008) Women sportscasters face considerable challenges when entering the male-dominated sports world. In the realm of sports culture, the ongoing competition among sports teams and athletes serves as a continual mechanism for constructing, validating and commemorating manliness. Sport is the nectar that nurtures the masculine self. It is a culture; the dominant culture in the United States where men rule and women are marginalized and objectified. This study reveals the barriers women encounter when they threaten the very arena in which men seek to get validation as males. Keywords: sports; culture; women; sportscasting; hegemony; men There has been substantial research examining the challenges that confront women in male-dominated workplaces (Dececchi et al. 1998, Pascall et al. 2000). There have been fewer studies of women who seek careers in domains that are not only male-dominated, but that also define masculinity for men. The focus for this study was the particular difficulties that women face as broadcasters in sport in the United States. Nelson (1999) observed that ‘sports are a male initiation rite, as fundamental and natural as shaving and deep voices ... ’ (p. 32). Male-dominated culture socializes young male children as to the role that sports play in determining and affirming their manhood as they ‘learn to associate sports prowess and sports privilege with masculinity’ (Nelson 1999, p. 32) and sports have traditionally served as a way for men to connect and bond with other males. So what happens when women pursue careers such as sportscasting? The foundation for our study utilized qualitative research that relied primarily on personal interviews. Through multiple interviews, we integrated perspectives on the woman sportscaster’s career. Women presently employed in the sport broadcast industry were invited to participate through purposeful sampling (26 sportscasters took part). Thematic analysis was used to treat the information gathered (see Boyatzis 1998, p. 4). A thematic code was developed through inductive analysis (see Patton 1987) and patterns were sought within and among each of the interviewees’ responses (see Singletary 1994). ISSN 0958-9236 print/ISSN 1465-3869 online q 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09589230903525460 http://www.informaworld.com *Corresponding author. Email: mgrubb@kent.edu Journal of Gender Studies Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2010, 87–93