Springer: Advancing women’s hiring in baseball

From Stephanie Springer at The Hardball Times on June 27, 2018, with mention of SABR member Christina Kahrl:

Every year, there is a different take on the question of who will be the first woman general manager in major league baseball. After all this time, we still only have a handful of names circulating. Nearly 30 years after Kim Ng began her career in baseball, it’s time to stop assuming that the mere presence of more diverse faces is sufficient to ensure that they find top roles in the front office. While this handful might help us meet the minimum requirements of the Selig rule, considering a single candidate from a historically marginalized group for a job opening is ineffective for actually introducing diversity to a position. Or as Stefanie Johnson, David Hekman and Elsa Chan put it in the Harvard Business Review: If There’s Only One Woman in Your Candidate Pool, There’s Statistically No Chance She’ll Be Hired.

In a May 2018 episode of Effectively Wild, Christina Kahrl discussed her ESPNW piece, “Where will MLB’s first woman GM come from?” Of course, this is a complicated question, and the podcast expands upon the story, touching on a number of the issues we must consider when exploring this multifaceted issue. Kahrl notes that women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields have faced gender imbalances throughout their education, which may prepare them for the gender imbalances one would face in the baseball world.

Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/advancing-womens-hiring-in-baseball/



Originally published: June 28, 2018. Last Updated: June 28, 2018.