Breaking stereotypes of women working in sports

It’s been a long time coming for women who want to work in the sports industry.

Vanessa Romo is a student on her way to the big leagues, and she refuses to let the stigma of women in sports stop her from reaching home plate.

“Never did I think I would be a sports reporter because you don’t see a lot of women doing sports reporting,” Romo says. “It has always been a dream to do sports reporting, but never did I think I was able to.”

Romo’s dream became reality. She now works for Fresno State Athletics and is the sports editor for her school’s newspaper.

Betsy Lauritzen is also changing the game. She works for Fresno State Athletics as the assistant director of new media. Her goal is to show her future daughters they can make it too.

“I just hope that one day I can look up and tell my daughters you know that your mother achieved her dream of becoming a big-time producer for a sports organization and that they can do anything they want to do,” Lauritzen said.  

No matter the obstacles, these women chose to push through adversity and were able to break the stereotype. They always wanted to work in sports so they did just that.

Reporter Julia Lopez is a sports anchor and reporter for KSEE 24 in Fresno. As she made her way to the anchor desk, she said she encountered some ridiculous questions about her credibility

“One of the things that comes to mind is, ‘do you even know what the Oakland A’s stands for?’ you know and I’m like come on you would never ask a guy that.. ever,” Lopez said.

For a while, there has been controversy surrounding the idea of a woman working in sports. From pay differences to sexual harassment, the lack of respect for women continues to increase, but these women decided to say, “no more.” 

“Us as women need to band together and show everybody including, you know, other women, other men and you know brothers and sisters and moms and dads, show them that, hey, we are just a normal person talking about sports,” Lopez said.

“Break that stereotype. Work through it and keep going. Don’t let anyone bring you down,” Romo said.

These women are strong. These women are powerful. No one can tell them otherwise.