Story and Video by Richard Adkins
Photography by Makayla Williams
When Edith Houghton became a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1946, she proved there was a place in Major League Baseball for women. But it took another 64 years before a second female scout was hired in the majors.
The door to more female representation is now slowly creaking open – with the emphasis on slowly. The 2021 Racial and Gender Report Card gave gender hiring for Major League Baseball central office positions a C-minus. The numbers show a significant difference in the hiring of men and women on coaching staffs and in front offices.
But that’s not the only problem. When women are hired, they are often greeted with sexist, hateful comments.
Bianca Smith, a coach in the Boston Red Sox organization, recalls an early encounter from an opposing male coach.
“We had a high school team who was playing on our field, and we’re in the cages warming up waiting for them to finish and the high school coach came over and asked what I did,” Smith said. “I gave him the entire spiel; I’m working for the baseball team. He answered, ‘Great when you graduate, I can hire you to make sandwiches.’”
Smith used these types of comments to fuel her determination to become the first Black woman to coach professional baseball. The Red Sox announced her hiring Jan. 4, 2021. For her, it’s an historical moment, but it’s not what she wants to be her only legacy.
“It wasn’t really that big a deal to me because I just see myself as a coach,” she said. “That’s how I hope other people would see me. If anything, I want to be remembered as just a good coach, not the first African American woman to coach professional baseball. I want to be known for how I coach not how I look.”
Perhaps sports fans would be more receptive to women breaking the gender barrier in men’s sports if there was a stronger awareness of women’s sports. According to Statista.com, a 2021 study showed that the most common reason for not engaging with women’s sports was 40 percent due to less media coverage, 35 percent due to lack of knowledge about the teams and/or athlete and 30% due to limited marketing.
Amy McCann, an Australian women’s national baseball team alum, believes there’s a way to get more coverage.
“A lot of women’s sports don’t receive any funding,” McCann said. “It’s not just baseball, but I think it’s up to the male counterparts in those leagues to try and champion the women’s side of the game. If we can see those men’s leagues start to host games for fall, some of the women that are playing the sport and things like that it will elevate the women.”
The MLB has looked to provide that spotlight to women in the profession with numerous social media posts celebrating those who are breaking the gender barrier.
As more teams hire women to coach and make decisions in the front office, the scouting department is starting to see a shift as well. M’Lynn Dease is a North Carolina native who recently became the Chicago Cubs’ new scout. The 23-year-old credits her internship journey as to how she was able to catch the opportunity.
“I got to have opportunities to focus on scouting through internships with (Prep Baseball Report) and Baseball America, I really got to go out into the field,” Dease said. “And some of it was more journalism heavy, but I was still around scouts, with scouts and got to watch a lot of collegiate and high school baseball that prepared me for what I’m doing now.”
As an area scout covering the Carolinas, Dease said that she is living her dream job. Working for a sport she fell in love with at the age 5, as she remembers looking onto the field from the dugout as her dad would coach. As she gears up for the upcoming season, she sees one way to keep the door open for female representation in baseball. “It is a daunting task just because of the history and the years that it’s been so inequitable,” Dease said. “I think, just continuing to have these conversations to put women in the forefront. Just staying strong and trying to influence other women. Being someone that people look up to is important and anybody in position to have the chance to tell their story.”
