The WNBA changed the equation for a young female broadcaster who wanted nothing more than to remain close to the game, and call basketball games.
The one thing I would say is, I do think women are evaluated differently than men. How we look, what is our age? Do you see a ton of 55-year-old women in sports television? No. But there are men in their 60s and 70s across many networks who are still in sports television.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Women face different standards of evaluation compared to men, particularly in age and appearance.
This quote by Doris Burke highlights the gender disparities in the evaluation of individuals, particularly in sports television. It points out the tendency for women to be judged more harshly based on their looks and age, while men are often afforded more leniency, staying longer in their roles regardless of age. This observation serves as a critique of societal biases that favor men and call for a reevaluation of how both genders are perceived in media and professional environments.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for gender equality in the workplace.
More from Doris Burke
All quotes →I feel like every repetition, every game, every practice that I'm allowed to watch, I'm picking up some small piece of information, a nuance about the game or a coach's philosophy.
Similar quotes
I've said this before, and I'm sure there are people who disagree, but I feel like one of the reasons there aren't a lot more women in stand-up - and there are many more now; it's not parity, but it's getting there - is that women are not socialized to look stupid or silly. They're socialized to be pretty and precious.
What works for men does not always work for women, because success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women. That's what the research shows. As a man gets more successful, everyone is rooting for him. As a woman gets more successful, both men and women like her less.
Girls are 50% of the population. We deserve to represent 50% of the heroes.
For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that's taking something that potentially should be celebrated - a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way - that's taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist.
It's more important to represent women as complete, whole, complicated humans as opposed to saintly, perfect women. The point isn't that they have to be good people. It's that they have to be people.
Our goal should be to develop work-life policies that enable people to put their gender values into practice. So let's stop arguing about the hard choices women make and help more women and men avoid such hard choices.