Women, Sports & PR

Women, Sports & PR
By Amber Theinert

Developing a research topic is no easy feat. I’ve found that my topic has changed so many times, I cannot even remember wear I started. I think it had something to do with politics, but I was bored quickly of that. Then I went on this non-profit kick, but realized that was also not very much fun, especially since I work for a non-profit and am involved in that everyday. I realized my topic must be something I can stand to be around ALL the time, something I really enjoy. Thinking back to my Sports PR course, taught by Kenny Mossman, I realized this was an area I could really have some passion about. Plus, the world of sports public relations is almost completely void of any really great scholarly research. Since I want an area where I feel as if my professional project could really make a difference, this seems like a great fit.

While in class, Mossman informed me that the field of sports information directing struggles for diversity, especially among women. Upon further investigation of the literature, I found an article titled “Women in the Male Dominated World of Sports Information Directing: Only the Strong Survive” that reaffirmed what I was told. This led me to believe that there would be public relations campaigns in place to recruit women to this field; however I could not find one (at least at this time). I visited the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) and could find no evidence of such a campaign. The Women’s Sports Foundation pushes women to pursue jobs within athletics, but it almost seems like an afterthought on the website. In fact, they merely provide links to sports job websites, but do not have a place for recruiters to post in order to actively seek out a woman as an employee.

After some research, I’ve decided to build a public relations campaign that actively seeks to place women in jobs within collegiate athletics departments. This research will need to be expanded beyond the world of sports, and my literature review will include topics such as employee recruiting, what works with recruiting and research of other public relations campaigns that are in place to recruit women. I’ve still not determined what my primary research will be, and if anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Since professional projects must be published in some way, I am hoping to reach out to CoSida, the Women’s Sports Foundation or another non-profit organization and provide my findings for their use. I think the ability for women to search such positions should be free of charge, no charge for membership as some websites do, http://www.wiscnetwork.com/, and this seems like something a non-profit would be interested in. I would also not be opposed to customizing such a campaign to a specific school, if there was interest. I will most likely need to take whatever research proposal I create for this class to one of these organizations so I might be able to tailor the campaign to whoever chooses to publish it for me.