An all-female broadcast team covered an NHL game featuring the Calgary Flames and the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday March 8th, 2020. The team consisted of play-by-play announcer Leah Hextall, game analyst Cassie Campbell-Pascall, and reporter Christine Simpson. Sunday’s broadcast was produced by a female production team live from Calgary, Toronto, and Salmon Arm, B.C., including Rogers Hometown Hockey executive producer Alison Redmond, game producer Maria Skinner and director Dawn Landis.
Sportnet’s campaign took place on March 8th, International Women’s Day. But what about the other 364 days of the year? Only 7.2% of sports anchors and 10.5% of local sports reporters are women. Where are our ladies at? This International Women’s Day broadcast demonstrates just how badly women’s sports and women broadcasters are neglected on TV. It is crazy that having an all-women broadcasting team breaks national news headlines. Shouldn’t this be a social norm by now?
“International Women’s Day is an opportunity to inspire young women and put a spotlight on what is possible, while encouraging continued conversation and action to overcome gender-based barriers for women in the workplace. I’m proud to work with highly talented women, whose skill, experience and perspective allow us to deliver sports programming at its best.” -Alison Redmond
Erica Robertson
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 