Sexism and the Authoritativeness of Female Sportscasters

Abstract

Research suggests that there is an audience sex bias in evaluating sportscasters, with women perceived as being less authoritative than men. In this study, college students were questioned about sexism and the authoritativeness of sportscasters, with 119 respondents listening to a woman and 125 listening to a man. One-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc comparisons showed that male listeners rated the male sportscaster more authoritative than the female, and that female listeners rated the male sportscaster as more authoritative than male listeners rated the female. Regression analyses showed weak but significant support for sexist attitudes predicting the authoritativeness rating of the female sportscaster.