(670 The Score) On a day in which the discussion about sports’ cultural problem in the way women are treated was renewed following the Mets firing general manager Jared Porter for sending unsolicited lewd texts to a female reporter in 2016, Radio.com Sports host Jennifer Sterger Decker on Tuesday called for more women to be elevated to positions of power to help address the issue.
In Sterger’s mind, that’s a key part of the path toward changing a culture that helped enable Porter to harass a foreign correspondent with a series of inappropriate texts for months, as ESPN detailed in a report Monday evening.
Sterger has been a victim of lewd misconduct from a powerful male sports figure herself, as she received explicit photos from Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre in 2008, when he was playing for the Jets and she was a reporter/gameday host for the team.
“To be honest, not much has changed,” Sterger said on the Danny Parkins Show on 670 The Score. “I think a lot of it has to do with the power dynamic in sports. For the most part, men are the decision-makers. Men are the people in power. As long as that weird power dynamic exists, I think this is going to be something that is recurring.”
Beyond the emotional pain, Sterger also lost a series of professional opportunities as the sports culture largely brushed Favre’s actions aside. Sterger still sees the same problems to this day.
“There just aren’t enough women in decision-making positions and positions of power of power to be able to advocate for us and to be able to say, ‘Look, the things that are happening to us are not right,’” Sterger said. “It took an actual movement, it took women across this country banning together and saying, from all different walks of life … it happens everywhere. I think we all just need to be a little more aware of it and call it out when it happens.”
You can listen to the full podcast of Sterger’s interview here, as she had much more to say.
“This exists everywhere,” Sterger said. “I’m not acting like what happened to be is an isolated incident. I know there are so many other women – like I said, in all walks of life – that have experienced this every single day.
“It comes down to putting women in positions of power and letting them have decisions at the table and letting them have a voice.”