Kim Ng got four no’s before she finally got a yes, for a position her colleagues and friends said was “long overdue”. Ng is both the first female General Manager in any male-dominated North American sport and the first Asian American General Manager in league baseball. Her hiring will not just change perspectives about women in sports, but will also pave the way for and encourage other women to be in managerial and coaching positions.
Juventus and Italy captain Sara Gama became the first woman vice president of the Italian Soccer Players Association. Every day, she continues to break barriers in an Italian Sports culture dominated by men.
Stéphanie Frappart was the first female referee to be put in charge of a men’s UEFA champion’s league game as well as the UEFA Super Cup final. She also refereed the Women’s World Cup final the same year. She has been a key to women breaking barriers across football.
Sports has always been a field where changing traditions have been widely mocked and criticized, and this has made it systemically hard for women to take up important roles and coaching and managerial positions and has actively discouraged it. The same happened to Amelie Mauresmo (who, by the way, was ranked No. 1 when she played tennis) when Andy Murray hired her as his coach in 2014. The reaction and response that the tennis community gave simply emphasizes the wide ranging sexism in sports. “I started getting messages from other players, from their coaches saying that they couldn't believe I was playing this game with the media and that I should tell them tomorrow that I was considering working with a dog” recalled Murray.
Murray also noted that whenever he lost a match or performed badly in a match, the blame would always shift towards his coach, whereas it was not the same case with a male coach, as if the community was eager to exile and look for opportunities to criticize Amelie. Incidentally, Andy Murray rose to be No. 2 in the world under Amelie.
This just proves over and over again, that there is significant sexism in all forms of sport. It is widely believed that women are not fit and qualified enough, when they so clearly are, to take up positions in a sport that might just prove otherwise. More and more women must be encouraged to take up significant roles and executive positions within sports to break the glass ceiling and shatter societal norms. A woman in a high ranking position means a lot to other women and just paves the path for other women to follow their interests and do what they want and be what they have a right to be.