Sky Sports’ Hayley McQueen Claims Woman ‘Have To Put In Twice As Much Effort’ As She Discusses Sexist Critics

Sky Sports’ Hayley McQueen has spoken out about the sexist criticism she faces, stating she feels female presenters have to work harder to avoid nasty comments.

Hayley is currently a main anchor on Sky Sports News and also presents the Saturday evening highlights show ‘Match Choice’.

And speaking to the Express, she’s now said that women do not have it as easy as their male counterparts.

She told the publication: “It’s almost like you have to put in twice as much effort to get half the credit. Instead of just getting on with doing our job, you do have to worry about making sure that you get everything absolutely perfect.

“If you make one tiny mistake or slip of the tongue, people are straight on it. [But] if you’re a bloke and you make that mistake they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s just a slip of the tongue, of course he knows what he’s talking about’.

“With a girl it’s like they look for something to criticise you on, they’re looking for you to make mistakes, they’re looking for you to say something.”

Hayley has also opened up about some of the messages she receives on social media, explaining while she still receives a number of inappropriate tweets, the situation has improved in recent years.

She said: “It’s great that we get so many tweets from girls now, originally it was just blokes like, ‘Why don’t you wear more low-cut stuff? Why when you go to events wearing hot dresses, why don’t you wear them on Sky Sports?’

“You just get really disgusting messages about what they’re doing to themselves while you’re presenting. I tend not to check Twitter so much for that anymore but it’s like, ‘Seriously? come on!’ It’s always men, never women.”

Hayley’s TV career began over a decade ago, when she worked as a runner on ‘Richard And Judy’.

She then landed her first sports presenting role, on Middlesbrough’s Boro TV channel, before being headhunted by Sky Sports.