The Women's Podcast

The Women's Podcast


Ep 231 Women of the World Cup & President Obama's Stenographer

July 12, 2018

Sexism has been a bigger problem than racism at the World Cup in Russia, according to anti-discrimination experts advising FIFA. There have been reports of fans harassing female broadcasters while they worked and the head of FIFA’s diversity program says they want less focus on attractive women in stadiums in TV broadcasts. Female pundits have been more plentiful for this tournament, but there is still some distance to go before women football analysts are taken as seriously as their male counterparts. RTÉ sports presenter Jacqui Hurley, Irish International footballer and RTÉ pundit for the World Cup, Stephanie Roche and Margaret Ward, a journalist and founder of Women On Air, speak to Bernice Harrison about what needs to be done if there's to be any chance of leveling the playing field.

Later in the show: Beck Dorey-Stein has written a memoir called From the Corner of the Oval Office, an account of her five years as President Barack Obama's stenographer. She talks to Bernice about working at the White House.