“We still have a long way to go”: A comparative study of Swedish and Brazilian women sports journalists’ challenges and perspectives

Sammanfattning: Sports journalism is a traditionally male-dominated environment. Previous research has shown that women sports journalists were outnumbered in newsrooms, had less career opportunities, have been exposed to harassment and must negotiate identity contradictions in order to succeed in their career. Most previous studies have explored English-speaking countries and little was done in Scandinavia and Latin America. This study aimed to analyze the perceptions and experiences of Swedish and Brazilian women sports journalists from gendered journalism cultures perspective, drawing a comparison between these countries. Through qualitative approach, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with seven women sports journalists from Sweden and Brazil and found that there are more similarities than differences between the two countries. Despite the different contexts, Swedish and Brazilian women sports journalists who participated in this study are overall satisfied with newsroom environment, they claimed that women journalists have gained more space, respect and voice in sports departments in comparison to when they started working in the field. However, they also pointed to some remaining issues such as sexist jokes and a feeling of having to prove their knowledge and capability. Another similarity observed was the perception that sports journalism has highly improved in relation to gender equality and, although the challenges still exist, they are less visible now. This study also found that the biggest difference observed between participants from Sweden and Brazil was the understanding of sexism and woman identity. While Swedish interviewees showed a more complex awareness of these concepts, Brazilians participants demonstrated some confusing comprehension, exposing more contradictions regarding these matters.