Up until 2020, there had only been one female General Manager of a major league men’s sports team in the United States. Lynne Meterparel of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) San Jose Clash from 1999-2000, who assumed the role at the age of 30 and oversaw their rebrand as the San Jose Earthquakes. In the world today, there are no shortage of men involved in the business of women’s sports. There is, however, a shortage of the reverse: women involved in the business of men’s sports. This lack of leadership diversity is certainly not exclusive to sports, but rather is representative of the overall business landscape in the United States. Currently, women make up just 8% of CEO positions of Fortune 500 companies, the top 500 companies by annual revenue in the United States (Statista).
📸: Lynne Meterparel
Then, twenty years after Meterparel assumed her historic role, in the span of just a few months, two more female General Managers were named to the helm of men’s sports teams. The Miami Marlins made history in November 2020 by naming Kim Ng as the first ever female General Manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. Just six months later, D.C. United hired Lucy Rushton to its equivalent position in their MLS club.
Additionally, last year D.C. United and fellow MLS club Chicago Fire both hired female presidents to oversee their business operations; Danita Johnson and Ishwara Glassman Chrein are now only the third and fourth women to hold those positions in the league, with Danita Johnson also being the first Black person in that role for an MLS club. This ascension of multiple women into front office leadership roles in men’s sports in such a short time has been incredible to watch, though it is still just a small portion of the total number of high-ranking roles that exist in the various leagues that exist in the United States.
The same gender dynamic exists in coaching: many coaching positions in women’s sports are occupied by men, but there are not many women coaching men’s teams. In recent years, several women have made headlines for advancing to prominent coaching roles for professional men’s sports teams: Dr Jen Welter as a coach for the Arizona Cardinals (NFL), Becky Hammon as an assistant coach for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) San Antonio Spurs (now head coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association at the Las Vegas Aces), Katie Sowers as an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL), Carrie Taylor as an assistant coach for the San Diego Loyal, a soccer team in the second-division USL Championship (Taylor has since left the role to pursue other opportunities with the Jamaican women’s national team). These women made headlines, because their ascent to these prominent roles is unprecedented in this country.
📸: Katie Sowers
Dr Jen Welter, the first female to coach in the National Football League (NFL) shared her views on leadership in sport.
“Because sports is so male-dominated, the leadership that we get (whether it’s guidance on how to lead or actually being led) is from men. But women approach things differently and have diverse thoughts to offer that can help men and women find success in sports. I always say that the brilliance of a diamond is revealed when you consider each individual facet. That’s when it’s really brought to life. It’s the collection of those individual facets or perspectives that allow the diamond to sparkle. It’s the same with leadership, we all sparkle and achieve excellence when we acknowledge the importance and value of every perspective.”
📸: Dr Jen Welter
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), based at the University of Central Florida, annually issues a report card for the major American sports leagues that grades the leagues on the racial and gender diversity in their workforces (though unfortunately, the only women’s league it reports is the Women’s National Basketball Association), with better grades indicating employee diversity closer to being representative of total population demographics. The report evaluates the racial and gender makeup of players, coaches, and front office employees of those leagues. The overall gender grading report card results from the last twenty years for MLS, the NFL, the NBA, and MLB can be found in the chart below (some years and data points, as well as data for the National Hockey League (NHL), were omitted due to lack of availability of those particular report cards/grades on the TIDES website, where the full reports and more in-depth information can be found). Just to note: A+ represents excellent gender representation, whereas F represents lower gender representation.
TIDES Gender Representation Report Card Grades
| Year | MLS | NFL | NBA | MLB |
| 2001 | D | D | B- | D+ |
| 2003 | F | D- | C | D |
| 2004 | B | D+ | B | C |
| 2005 | N/A | N/A | B- | D+ |
| 2008 | C+ | N/A | B+ | C+ |
| 2009 | B | C | B+/A- | B- |
| 2011 | C+ | C | A- | B- |
| 2012 | B | C+ | A- | C+ |
| 2013 | B | C | B+ | C+ |
| 2014 | C+ | C- | B+ | C+ |
| 2015 | B | C+ | B+ | C/C+ |
| 2016 | B | C+ | B | C/C+ |
| 2017 | C+ | C | B | C |
| 2018 | C+ | C | B | C |
| 2019 | C | C+ | B | C |
| 2020 | C- | C | B- | C |
| 2021 | C | C+ | B | C |
Comparing the grades of these four leagues over time is interesting. In general, the leagues have improved since the first few years of the data shown here, but the grades have mainly stagnated for most years after that. It is understandable for there to be fluctuation year after year, but we would hope that by this point, there would be better grades than a C+ or lower for three out of the four leagues for the past four years. This data shows that, though the NBA stands out above the others, there is still much work to do to achieve fully equal gender representation in the men’s sports business.
Progress may be slow, but it is still progress. Companies and sports teams are recognizing that diversity within their ranks is valuable and important, and that women are just as capable and competent when given the same opportunities and resources. It takes commitment from teams and organisations to prioritise diversity in hiring and making their working environments an inclusive space. For example, the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks hired Cynthia Marshall as the league’s first Black female CEO to fix the team’s culture of sexual harassment in 2018. At the time she was hired, there were only white men on the Mavericks’ leadership team; now, in addition to her work with the team’s culture and her normal day-to-day responsibilities, half of the leadership team members are women and just under half are minorities (CNBC).
All the women mentioned here have broken barriers and paved the way for more organisations to hire more women to high-ranking positions in men’s sports. And with the current broader societal awareness and activism for diversity in workplaces, we can hope this progress will accelerate until we have fully equal gender representation in both men’s and women’s sports that truly reflects the demographics of our society. Personally, I can’t wait for the day that another woman CEO, sports team GM, or head coach in a men’s sports league is regarded not as barrier-breaking, but simply business as usual.
Written by Grace Ott
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