Trailblazing AFL Reporter Reveals Shocking Sexism

The Age’s former chief football writer, Caroline Wilson, shed light on sexism in sports at the 2018 Andrew Olle Lecture last night, recalling the times throughout her three and a half decade-long career that she’s experienced harassment and belittling at work. She acknowledged that a lot has changed since she started out in 1978 as a 17-year-old copy girl at Melbourne’s afternoon newspaper The Herald—a time before click bait or the 24-hour news cycle. Now, the AFL boasts two women commissioners and hopefully there’ll be a third by the end of the year, but when it comes to gender equality in sports Wilson believes we have a long way to go. We’ve pulled sections of her rousing speech so you can hear about her experiences in her own words.

1. “Coming to the end of my Cadetship I was told by my first sports editor Ron Reed that I was coming in as an experiment, a woman in an all-male department who would be given the opportunity to cover everything but boxing.”

2.  “Turning up to work one Monday after covering my first practice game the all-male sports subs desk regarded me with a new-found respect. They couldn’t believe a woman could write a reasonable accurate match report on deadline…”