In 1974, sports media was a men’s club until Lesley Visser came along.

Visser joined the sports staff of the Boston Globe after graduating from Boston College. Starting out she covered everything, but within two years she became the first woman NFL beat writer when she was assigned to cover the New England Patriots.

During her 14 years with the Globe, Visser covered college basketball, the NBA, tennis, golf, the MLB, horse racing, college football and the NFL. 

Today, she is the only sportscaster who has worked network broadcasts of seven major sporting events: Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympic Games, U.S. Open (golf) and the World Figure Skating Championship.

Over 40 years ago, Melissa Ludtke became the first woman to cover MLB.

Although she was a beat reporter for Sports Illustrated, Ludtke was expected to wait outside the clubhouse while their male counterparts could go speak to players.

When the then-MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn barred her from the locker rooms, Ludtke, who was 26 at the time, sued.

Ludtke v. Kuhn was heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1978. Kuhn said in his statement to the federal judge that females were kept out of the clubhouse because he felt Major League Baseball had a high standard to uphold integrity and morality (Ludtke v. Kuhn 1978). Today the point still gets lost in sexist rhetoric about a woman being in a men’s locker room.

But Ludtke said her suit was about women having equal access to do their jobs.

If interviews were never held in a locker room again after the case, she’d be okay with that, Ludtke said. This case, she said, was about the equal access to sources.

Ludtke said she felt like she was the one being put on trial because she was taking on “America’s pastime.” No one prepared her for interviews, and she couldn’t respond to all this news commentary because social media and other digital tools didn't exist.

Judge Constance Baker Motley’s ruling in favor of Ludtke was a groundbreaking moment for women in sports media.

Decades later women in sports media still face barriers. Men continue to hold the decision-making power in most (if not all) sports, and society’s attitudes toward women sports reporters are lagging as well. Women often have worked to be taken seriously. They continue to face sexism and sexual harassment.

Women are still the minority in the sports media industry. They face public criticism on social media. In some cases their accomplishments and storylines are defined by their femininity.

Still, Visser and Ludtke see signs for hope in the strides that have been made. More women are entering the industry and there are more options when pursuing a career thanks to social media and many online platforms.

“The changes have been magnificent from my vantage point,” said Visser. She noted that CBS sports has the first all-women network sports talk show, We Need to Talk. She said she saw a turning point for women reporters in 2017. Reporter Jourdan Rodrigue surprised then-Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton with her knowledge of the game when she asked about routes.

Following the Newton situation, many took to social media to stand up for Rodrigue and support her knowledge of the game. Newton eventually issued an apology.

Sports journalism, and journalism as a whole, has evolved in the digital age. From social media platforms to video creation to podcasting, there are many different forms of journalism beyond writing. Yet, they are all just a different way to tell a story. 

The basics of being a woman in sports media has not changed, Ludtke and Visser said. But today there's an alliance of women in sports media. AWSM (Association of Women in Sports Media) is a network of more than 1,000 women (and men) who are professionals in sports media or aspiring to enter the industry. Through networking and being at events together, women are supporting each other and holding each other accountable, said Ludtke.

Visser said “there are women who know sports and they end up on television, and then there are women who want to be on television and end up in sports.” However, one of the key ingredients to a career in sports media is passion.