Female coaches Bianca Smith and Rachel Balkovec are making major league history.
A survey taken by Sports Betting Dime in 2021 posed the question, “where are all the female coaches in major league sports?” With mass media athletics catering to their millions of viewers, SBD spoke to over 1,200 National Basketball Association and National Football League fans across America in an attempt to ascertain their perspective of female coaches. Female coaches often face the stereotypes that they are less qualified, emasculate male players, and struggle to control and successfully lead male players. The study showed that 1 in 4 fans believe that male athletes would feel emasculated by female coaches, and 15.1% believe that major teams coached by women would be less successful than those coached by men. Despite these numbers, women are working to break sports’ glass ceiling.
With eight female coaches in the NBA and 12 in the NFL, Major League Baseball has the most with 23 female coaches in various roles, from assistants to professional development. One of the newest coaches this season is Bianca Smith, who will be joining the Boston Red Sox as the first Black woman to coach in the MLB. However, It wasn’t until January 12th that the first female manager in the history of Major League Baseball was announced. Rachel Balkovec’s new role places her in charge of the Tampa Tarpons clubhouse, overseeing the progress of professional baseball players and future Major Leaguers. Balkovec built a resume of over five internships and a master’s degree in Biomechanics and Sports Administration. She began her Major League Baseball coaching career in 2014 as the first woman to be a full-time Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals. Later she became the first full-time female hitting coach in the MLB, hired by the New York Yankees, before receiving her current role as manager.
The road to her newest position as manager was no easy feat. Balkovec changed the name on her resume to the gender-neutral ‘Rae Balkovec‘ to avoid gender discrimination. She also modified the wording regarding her experience as a “College Softball Player” to “Division One Catcher,” focusing on her success as a player rather than drawing attention to the female affiliated sport. Despite being the first professional sport to be racially integrated, baseball took longer to champion female empowerment and leadership. However, Balkovec hopes this marks the beginning of a new era, stating in a live-streamed press conference, “I want to be a visible idea for young women. I want to be a visible idea for dads that have daughters. I want to be out there.”
Balkovec hopes to be a support system for her assisting coaches on the Yankees to discuss pitching, hitting, and defense while maintaining a personal relationship with players. Balkovec continues, “my goal is to learn the names of the girlfriends, the dogs, the families of all the players. My goal is to develop them as young men and young people, who have an immense amount of pressure on them.” Balkovec has commanded respect from both her colleagues and players despite constantly fighting stereotypes. However, she has received a slew of negativity online from baseball fans suggesting that the Yankees hired her for publicity. Yankees VP and General Manager, Brian Cashman responded to the theory in a statement, “I was caught off guard by how much notoriety this is [getting], hopefully at some point this is no longer newsworthy, it’s just as simple as you’re hiring the best people.” Balkovec herself also spoke out against the negativity, “if you know my story and you have a pulse, I think it’s pretty hard to not get behind what’s going on here.” As a woman who has overcome mass sexism, both professionally and at the hands of the public, Balkovec has described the position as ‘the American dream’ and hopes to instil motivation and inspiration to a younger generation of passionate young women.
With Smith and Balkovec breaking barriers in the MLB and female coaching numbers continuing to rise, all that is left is a change in perspective from fans. We can only hope that the horizon finally spells a day when women in positions of power—in sports and elsewhere—is the new normal.
