ANGELA Haggerty is one of a growing group of female reporters doing the kind of work that was previously considered the exclusive domain of men.
Angela is a sports reporter and columnist and a good one at that, she's one of a number of ambitious young women along with people like columnist Rachel Lynch making strides in her field.
Female journalists have in the past been pigeon holed into traditional jobs, features and human interest stories.
Instead Angela and Rachel write about football, the tough world of Scottish football at that.
Every time Angela Haggerty appears on TV or radio the online abuse about her religious background and appearance, along with sexual slurs, intensifies.
Angela was branded “Taig of the Day” during a podcast in 2012 because she edited a book on the collapse of Rangers Football Club.
Scotland has much tougher anti sectarianism laws than we have here in Northern Ireland and one man was jailed for six months for the abuse, but that didn't stop it.
Angela wrote about the worst of the abuse and how she deals with it in a powerful column in the Sunday Herald last week.
Her experience is something not just other female reporters can relate to but any woman who puts themselves in the public eye.
As Sinn Féin councillor and school teacher Patrice Hardy found out recently when someone put explicit pictures on Instagram, a social media site, falsely claiming they were of her.
It's the kind sexual abuse a male politician would never have to deal with.
Social networking is now a part of our lives and for those of us who work in the media it's part of our job.
It can be a fantastic way of communicating directly with readers and hearing at first hand their views and experiences.
At times these debates are heated and that's all part of the rough and tumble kind of job I do.
People are naturally curious and want to ask questions and again I'll always welcome that feedback whether negative or positive as long as it's not abusive.
Watching the abuse Angela Haggerty and others deal with as well as the relentless abuse I've dealt with myself has more than likely gave me a different perspective than most.
The internet is said to be misogynist, but let's not blame one of humanity's greatest inventions for the failings of the few.
What the internet has done is make a handful of women haters think they're important, if they can gather a few 'likes' or retweets for a particularly cutting comment, then they sit at home high five-ing their own genius.
The most interesting aspect of this pack attack mentality is that in this divided society we live internet stalkers and obsessives put aside all political, religious and ideological beliefs when the opportunity arises to have a go at woman with a public profile.
There should be peace funding set aside to research how hardline loyalists all of a sudden accept the word of a so called dissident republican as long as the target is mutual and in most cases female.
If ever the saying my enemy's enemy is my friend was applicable just have a glance at Twitter.
The aim of these men with too much time and not enough personality is of course to intimidate women out of doing their job.
Patrice Hardy by virtue of her looks and intelligence was reduced to a sexual object by a man who couldn't deal with her being in a position of political influence.
Angela Haggerty by commenting and writing about soccer is encroaching on their fragile masculinity.
In my case I write about security and crime and I guarantee if I were writing about shoes or celebrities I'd get no such abuse.
Men who are failures in their own lives can't deal with successful women, it reminds them of their own inadequacies.
Whereas men who are secure in themselves wouldn't dream of resorting to such sexist, stalking obsessiveness.
I hope the son I've raised feels secure enough in himself never to resort to such misogynistic behaviour and I pity the daughters of the creeps who I've had to block from Twitter.
