Unseen Challenges: Standing Against Misogyny in Sports

By Maya Sison

Elaine Tamboia, a Purchase College media studies major on an accelerated track to graduate a year early, has spent the last three years navigating the challenges of working in athletics, a field where women often feel underestimated and overlooked.

Tamboia, a former athlete, has faced a challenging journey working with athletes and coaches from various colleges across different sports, while also navigating gender biases. Now, a sports information intern working for Purchase, she has made it her mission to tackle misogyny head-on.

Elaine Tamboia, sports information intern, poses for a photo in front of the Panthers' logo. (Photo by Jasmine Sitti)

I hear you have an on-campus job working for the athletics department. How long have you been working for athletics? How has that whole experience been like?

I have been working for athletics for three years now. I applied for the social media internship my second year here at Purchase and immediately loved it. I grew up playing sports, and I loved digitally creating content, and the job was a mixture of both. It was right up my alley. I think the experience as a whole has been mostly positive. I have gained so much knowledge and experience and have made so many new friends and memories, but not without a couple of not-so-great moments. Nonetheless, I am so grateful for it and the opportunities it has opened for me. I have loved this job for the past three years, and I am devastated to be leaving.

It’s clear that your time working in athletics has been both rewarding and impactful. So much so that you decided to base your senior project on your experience as a woman working in sports. Given your experience and passion for the field, what led you to focus specifically on the issue of misogyny in sports for your project? Was it something you’ve noticed throughout your time here?

I knew what my project was going to be since the start. No matter what I was going to do, it was going to have an underlying tone of feminism. I did a semester in a media studies research class while also being in a sports communication class, where both had discussions of gender in sports. And for an assignment for one of the classes, I chose the topic of women in soccer, and researching that, I realized just all the challenges and how underrepresented women in sports media were. It was a topic that I was passionate about and that I felt needed to be talked about more.

Tamboia and Purchase College’s mascot, Perseus. (Photo by Maya Sison)

I didn’t know what to call it for the longest time. My original title was “Women in Sports,” and then over my time at Purchase College Athletics, I kept a list of all the negative interactions I had because they were always so shocking to me that they occurred, especially in Division Three athletics. I had decided to do my project on women in sports media when my teacher was pushing me to add a personal touch to the project. And I decided that my personal touch would be about my personal experiences. I was thinking about focusing on both negative and positive experiences, and then I realized that there were so many negatives that could fill the essay, unfortunately.

What was your first experience with misogyny in sports during your time in college?

One of my first negative interactions was with a coach, I don’t quite remember what team. It was at a men’s soccer home game, one of the first games that I was working. I had a whole table set up on the field by the midline, keeping track of substitutions while simultaneously updating the social media. I had a clipboard, a walkie-talkie, a laptop, and I was wearing my staff shirt. I wasn’t closely interacting with any of the players, just briefly to get who is subbing for who. And the coach from the opposing team came up to me and full out said, “I don’t know which guy on the team you’re dating,” to which I quickly said, “I’m not dating a player.” As I was saying that the coach cut me off and said, “Girlfriends don’t belong on the field. You are being very distracting towards our players by being on the field.” I was really taken aback, it really shocked me.

I told my mom about it, my boyfriend about it, and writing it down. It was so shocking to see that he completely disregarded the fact that I could’ve been working. And I think the fact that he jumped to the assumption that I was somebody’s girlfriend rather than a student worker just off the bat offended me, but it also motivated me to make my presence known more and to work harder to be somebody that is known throughout athletics. Which is why the title of my project is “Girlfriends Don’t Belong on the Field.”

Wow, that is such a great title, despite the unfortunate and disturbing events that occurred. Why choose this as the title?

Not only was it my first negative interaction in the sports field, but I decided to choose it because I think that it is such a powerful quote about how most men see women in sports fields.

Game Day Set Up 2022. (Photo by Elaine Tamboia)

Anytime you see a woman interact with sports, it is only publicized in the media because they are girlfriends of a famous player. You only hear about women in sports when they’re girlfriends, and I feel that that is so important to highlight and focus on and really think about. We could be there [women in sports/consuming sports] for fun, we could be there because we work there [in sports], rather than assuming I’m somebody’s girlfriend, and that is why I am standing on the field.

For me, the most important part of the quote was that “girlfriends don’t belong on the field” because he completely made a generalization about me that could not be further from the truth. I was very offended, and it broke my heart at the time because I thought that I was doing something big and I felt like this big person on the field and then, I realized that at the end of the day, I am just a woman, and I have to be bigger than that.

I have spoken briefly with Shaka McGlotten [Tamboia’s senior project advisor and Professor in media studies], they really like the topic of your project. How has Shaka helped you develop your project?

Shaka has helped me a lot with developing my project, giving me avenues to think about and explore with my project. Most recently, they recommended a podcast for me to listen to called “Tested.” It was talking about women in sports and different challenges and roles they had to take on.

Another way that Shaka has helped is letting us [the seniors] choose how we want to be helped and guided with our senior project. I am someone who needs hands off, I do not need someone constantly in my ear and checking in with me. I would be so overwhelmed and stressed, and would not be able to enjoy writing. It was something that we had discussed from the start. I had a class with Shaka last semester that met twice a week, and it was all we talked about, so this time around, it is pretty laid back, and if I ever need anything, they are always there to help, like notes on what I can add or improve. But for the most part, I am 30 pages in, and I feel confident in the story I want to tell and the points I want to make.

What do you hope to achieve with your project?

With my project, I hope to shed light on the issues that exist within women and sports. I want my story and other people’s stories to be heard. There are so many women who are underrepresented and are underestimated, and with my project, I hope it brings light to how women are treated in this field, and I hope it inspires change in this industry. I want to help change the way women are treated in this field.