Baseball umpire Jen Pawol will make history this week as the first woman to work as an umpire in a Major League Baseball regular season game, crossing a historic gender barrier.
Pawol has worked MLB games during spring training but her work on Saturday, when she will be in the crew for a doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins at Truist Park, will be her first time in the big leagues. The doubleheader required a fifth umpire to be added to the crew, according to a report on MLB.com.
She is one of 17 Triple-A umpires who are eligible to be called up to MLB games if needed, the league said.
It’ll be the latest history-making moment for Pawol, who became the first female umpire in 17 years to work a spring training game in 2024. She was the seventh woman to umpire in the minor leagues and made her pro debut in the Gulf Coast League in June 2016, according to MLB.
Pawol got her start in 2015 at the MLB Umpire Camp in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was hooked from there, she said in an interview with MLB.com in 2022.
“Someone told me about the MLB Umpire Camps program and even put it in my mind that what I had been kind of told or not told, for whatever reason, about professional baseball and how welcoming and amazing it is for women to work in, as soon as I heard that I went and checked it out for myself,” she said.
“And they were right. I think more women need to know that it’s a safe environment, it’s welcoming, it’s incredible. I went in 2015 … I had an amazing time, I felt like it was going to be a great day, and it turned out to be amazing and it was going to change my life, actually.”
Pawol played softball for Hofstra and is a native of New Jersey.
She’ll work the bases during Saturday’s tilt between the Marlins and Braves before being behind the plate to call balls and strikes on Sunday, according to MLB.
On Wednesday, MLB commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said Pawol’s call-up was an “historic accomplishment” and a “reflection of Jen’s hard work, dedication and love of the game.”
Manfred continued, “She has earned this opportunity, and we are proud of the strong example she has set, particularly for all the women and young girls who aspire to roles on the field. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my congratulations to Jen and her family on this milestone.”
The officiating glass ceiling was shattered in the NBA in 1997, with Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner hired as referees. Sarah Thomas was the first woman to work on an NFL officiating crew in a regular-season game in 2015. She’s also the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl.
Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to officiate a men’s FIFA World Cup match in 2022.
