French Female Sportscasters Decry Sexist Treatment, Groping

Five years ago, Marie Portolano, then a sports journalist with Canal+, was taken aback when her colleague, the French channel’s veteran soccer pundit, lifted her skirt and allegedly grabbed her in front of a studio audience.

She slapped Pierre Ménès, but was persuaded later by colleagues and friends not to make a fuss, fearing that if she took the matter further, it might wreck her television career. But now Portolano and other female sports journalists are making a fuss — they say they’ve had enough of enduring routine sexual harassment, including being groped. More than 100 female journalists have gone public about the derogatory comments, lurid abuse and unwanted sexual advances they encounter every day — in and out of studios, on social media and in their meetings with sports stars. In an angry open letter signed last month, 150 female sports journalists complained of the routine sexism they endure, including being paid less than their male colleagues and overlooked for the top slots. “It is time for us, female sports journalists, to unite and put pressure” on the industry, they wrote. “We intend to hold the ground. It starts now.”