Multicultural Women’s Network: Lindsay Troncone
Over the next few weeks, Front Row will spotlight female employee voices from throughout ESPN. These voices all come from ESPN’s new employee-led group, The Multicultural Women’s Network. This group was built specifically to focus on connecting, developing and elevating women of color. These women along with many allies at the helm aims to celebrate and empower the intersection and layered complexity of race, gender, and culture that makes up the core of who we are.
Photos: Melissa Rawlins/ESPN Images
"The hardest part of being a woman in a 'man’s industry' was convincing myself that I was not a stereotype."
Lindsay Troncone
When Lindsay joined ESPN and was one of a few women in her field, she just wanted to be “one of the guys.” After a while, she realized the importance of not only embracing all the ways we are all similar, but highlighting all the things that make us different and unique. As she immersed herself into the world of Diversity & Inclusion, she began to understand the importance of allyship and what a powerful force it can be. Connecting and really working to understand others is at the heart of everything she does. Lindsay has been at ESPN for 13 years, working as a coordinating studio operator in Production Operations. In that role, she operates camera, lighting, and other technical aspects of studio shows and assists in coordinating the schedule of operators and facilities.
How/what stereotypes you’ve worked to combat?
The hardest part of being a woman in a “man’s industry” was convincing myself that I was not a stereotype. My particular role as a studio operator required technical knowledge of equipment and sometimes handling heavy set pieces and cameras. I believed that I was physically weaker than my male counterparts and that my technical knowledge was not as strong, because I always felt men just seem to know more about technology and the mechanics of how things work—that made me believe I was less capable of the job. Combatting those stereotypes in my own mind was a crucial step to realizing that we are so much more than the generalized boxes we’re put into.
