Alexandra Devine – Mustangs Ahead 

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – March is Women’s History Month, and America’s  four major professional sports leagues can celebrate all the hardworking women within the industry.  

Whether these women are coaches, performance and strength coaches, nutritionists, dieticians, executives, public relations specialists, directors, vice presidents, managers, or any other job within the organization of a team, a professional team would simply not operate without them. 

Women have worked tirelessly to pave the way for the future of sports.  

National Hockey League (NHL): 

In the NHL, women make up one third of the workforce according to The Athletic.  

Over the past few seasons, several teams have added women in their hockey operations departments. Emilie Castonguay, a former NHL player agent, was hired as an assistant general manager for the Vancouver Canucks in January 2022. She was the second woman hired in this position.  

Kate Madigan worked in various hockey operations roles before joining the New Jersey Devils as an assistant manager.  

In scouting departments across the league, five teams have hired women to scout for their organization. Storied teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins are among the teams that have hired female scouts, according to NHL.com. 

Along with Castonguay, there are five current female assistant general managers across the league. 

Major League Baseball (MLB): 

The Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng in November 2020 as their general manager. Ng had been a longtime executive in the MLB.  

“She (Ng) is the first woman GM of any professional men’s team in major North American sports, and first woman of Asian descent to lead a club’s baseball operations,” according to MLB.com.  

Locally, the Tampa Bay Rays have Chanda Lawdermilk as their vice president of baseball operations. Lawdermilk became the first woman in the Rays’ franchise history to have a role at the VP-level in baseball operations, according to MLB.com. 

Along with Ng and Lawdermilk, many other women work for various MLB teams in roles such as coaching, player development, and front office operations. 

National Football League (NFL): 

According to USA Today, “The overall percentage of women in the NFL’s league office is at an all-time high of 41.3% in 2022 with 319 females holding various positions.” 

Hosted by the NFL, the Women’s Careers in Football Forum is designed to engage women in entry-level football jobs and connects them to NFL coaches, general managers, owners, and executives.  

Sam Rapoport, the woman behind the forum and the NFL’s Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion, said, “That part of it is so incredibly rewarding, because not only are we inspiring young girls, but we’re starting to create the next generation, the next pipeline of candidates.” 

Stay updated on important LRHS news and share what you like by following our Twitter @MustangsAhead, Instagram @mustangs_ahead, TikTok @mustangsahead and follow the Mustangs Ahead Podcast   

National Basketball Association (NBA): 

Women make up around 10.5% of the NBA’s CEO and president roles of teams, according to Statista. 

Becky Hammon, who previously worked eight seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, was the “first-ever, full-time paid female assistant on an NBA coaching staff” in 2014, according to The Sporting News. 

Now, Hammon is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).  

Along with Hammon, several other women fill the NBA front office roles. One of the seven in The Org’s “Seven of the Most Powerful Female Executives in the NBA” is Gillian Zucker with the Los Angeles Clippers. 

Zucker is the Clippers’ President of Business Operations. She became the first top-level female executive of the Clippers’ franchise history when she was hired in 2014.