From being locked out of the locker room to allegations of inappropriate relationships with interviewees, three sporting journalists at the top of their game share some of the highs and lows of being a female sports reporter in a male-dominated industry.

NICOLE JEFFERY

Senior sports journalist at The Australian

When I started covering rugby league, I was the only female at the time. There were several clubs that didn't allow women in the dressing room. There was a general attitude that you were some kind of devious groupie... a smart groupie who managed to get herself a job that would get her in touch with the footballers she wanted to marry, rather than someone trying to do a professional job.

We were kept out of dressing rooms while the men went in, while the under-12s and the under-8s went in, while other supporters went in. We were just standing outside waiting to see whether a coach would deign to come and talk to us. We never got any support from our male colleagues because their fear was that their dressing room privileges would be removed. To give us equality, they would lose something in order for us to get to an equal place. Consequently they were not supportive. We were just out there on our own.

That changed in the early 1990s when my dear friend and colleague Jacquelin Magnay took a club that denied her access to the dressing room to the Human Rights Commission.

JESSICA YATES

Motorsports anchor for Fox Sports Australia

I'd been at Fox Sports for maybe two years when I got a phone call from my boss and he said, 'How do you like cricket?' And I went, 'Is this a trick question? Cricket's fine.'

He said, 'You've gotta be a boundary writer. I'll put you and Sarah Jones, who's Melbourne-based, on the boundary. It's gonna be great!'

And I went, 'Okay, can I ask a question? Are you putting us on because we're female or because you actually think...'

'Oh no, it's because you're gonna do a great job!' And I knew when I fronted up everyone was a little sceptical. I could see it—they weren't saying it.

Probably one of the most satisfying moments of my career was the look on their faces when I was there, I did the job, and everyone said, 'Oh wow! You actually know what you're talking about!'

Sarah and I often laugh about that, because we started together and it was probably the first time that they had really used any females on their coverage—on any of those big production sports broadcasts—and all of a sudden it was like, 'Oh no, get Sarah or Jess to do it!' We ended up having to do everything.

When the opportunity came up to start hosting motorsports coverage, the person who had preceded me was very blokey and manly. It was sort of said, 'Oh, she couldn't possibly know about motorbikes or cars.'

I remember sitting at a pub down at Phillip Island after the World Superbikes had been on and a guy came in and said, 'Oh, you're that chick on TV! You do a really good job! You actually... do you ride?'

It was this moment where all of a sudden a female could know as much, or be as interested in the sport.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA

Investigative reporter with ABC TV's Four Corners

[While investigating the doping allegations involving biochemist Stephen Dank, who worked as a sports scientist with National Rugby League clubs] I rang his barrister and said, 'We'd like to speak to Stephen Dank'. I explained to him the benefits of going with a program that doesn't have any commercial arrangements. We got there and I think Dank was as surprised as I was. We'd never met before the interview.

After the interview there was such an enormous amount of competition to get this guy on camera. He'd had really big offers coming in from the commercials and he had a lot of pre-existing relationships with people in football as well.

There was a lot of publicity in the lead-up to the interview and I was on radio doing publicity with a couple of guys on the sports afternoon programme in Adelaide. Instead of actually talking about what's going to be in this interview, it was an interrogation as to my relationship with Stephen Dank!

They said, 'Come on Caro, tell us the truth. You have a pre-existing relationship with Mr Dank, don't you? That's how you've got this interview.'

And I said, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Come on, pull the other one! How'd you get it then? Come on, we know you have a pre-existing relationship with Mr Dank, so come on, tell us—what'd you do?'

I said, 'I think I'm going to get out of this interview now, I'm going to go, have a good afternoon boys,' and I put down the phone and sat there in the booth at the ABC. I was bright red and I wasn't really thinking at the time. I thought, they're suggesting that I had a sexual relationship with this man. I was very embarrassed and wondering what I'd said on air live.

The next minute, I get a call from the producer and he said, 'Our phones are going off, our audience is so offended. The boys are copping it for what they've just done, can you come back on air live? We're going to issue you an apology.'

I said, 'Save your apology. I'm not going back on air with you.' That really shocked me. That genuinely surprised me. It was bizarre.

Women in sports journalism Thursday 24 September 2015 Hear the full lively discussion hosted by Women in Media, That Sporting Life. How much has really changed for women reporting on sport? More This [series episode segment] has image,

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