by Laura Everett 12/23/22

Right now, this is a holding place, but I’m hoping it will become something more. I’m scheming. And I welcome your wisdom, and shoot, if you want to invest, I welcome your money too.

I’ve been brewing on the problem of the dearth of coverage of women’s pro sports in Boston for a long time. Because here’s the thing: women’s sports is growing, but the established media coverage isn’t.

I’ve spent plenty of time pushing some of our local media outlets of just how unbalanced their coverage of women’s teams is. On November 26, 2021 the Boston Globe Sports section ran a full 12 pages of coverage of “sports” without a single mention of women. This was on the day after Formiga retired from international play. A player so essential to the women’s game that there has never been an Olympic tournament without her. Boston has a massive Brazilian population to boot. But not a single word about Formiga or any women that day.

For months after, I tracked for myself just how much of the Boston Globe Sports section dedicated to any women’s team coverage. I ran a gender equity audit. It was embarrassingly low. Dialogue with the editorial staff was fairly unproductive. You can sort through the images via the hashtag #GlobeSportsWomen on Twitter and Instagram. It’s not good.

At some point, I think I’ve realized that perhaps the best route forward is to build for one’s self what you long for. Do I have time for this? No. I’m a full time pastor, mender, textile artist and writer, with a whole lot of caregiving responsibilities to my family and community- as a queer woman and wife in a caregiving profession this is the essence of unpaid labor.

And, what I’ve been deeply inspired by are dear friends and colleagues in other parts of the sporting world who built what they dreamed of outside of traditional institutions. Folx like Skye and Sylvs at Shea Butter FC, and André and Courtney at Diaspora Utd, and the whole 2C fam. Rowing in Color pod! There’s a whole world of independent media covering women’s sports, centering Black, Latina, women and queer athletes and from this I gain hope and inspiration.

I don’t really have a plan yet. But I know that the athletes in greater Boston’s pro women’s leagues deserve better than what they’re getting. And God knows I’ve got enough opinions.

Watch this space.