Women’s Rights and Issues Through a Sports Lens with Award-Winning Journalist Julie DiCaro

Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women’s rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women’s advocateIn a society that is digging deep into the misogyny underlying our traditions and media, the world of sports is especially fertile ground. From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women’s pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, this area of our culture is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us—whether or not our work and leisure time revolve around what happens on the field.

No one is better equipped to examine sports through this feminist lens than sports journalist Julie DiCaro. Throughout her experiences covering professional sports for more than a decade, DiCaro has been outspoken about the exploitation of the female body, the covert and overt sexism women face in the workplace, and the male-driven toxicity in sports fandom. Now through candid interviews, personal anecdotes, and deep research, she’s tackling these thorny issues and exploring what America can do to give women a fair and competitive playing field in sports and beyond.

Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women’s teams fighting for equal pay and treatment, and looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America—and the power in fighting back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie DiCaro is a sports journalist and editor at Deadspin, and a former attorney. Her writing has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vice Sports, The Establishment, and HuffPost. An outspoken critic of sexism in the media and online harassment, DiCaro joined with ESPN’s Sarah Spain in 2016 to create the viral video #MoreThanMean, for which she won a Peabody Award, a 2017 Gracie Award for Women in Media, a Clio Sports Grand, and many other awards. She also received a 2019 Gracie Award for her work in Chicago sports talk radio. She lives in the Chicago suburbs.

IN CONVERSATION

For nearly 30 years Laura Okmin has been covering the biggest names in sports on the biggest stages. She is the third longest tenured sideline reporter in NFL history, currently reporting for FOX and Westwood One’s NFL national radio games. She is also the founder of GALvanize, an organization that trains and mentors the next generation of women sports broadcasters on and off camera.

MODERATOR: Marya Pasciuto