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Many of those fans -- more than you might think -- are women.

Ìýfound womenÌýmade up 39% of those who attended or watched Major League Baseball games, and franchises have taken notice. °Õ³ó±ðÌýÌýoffer behind-the-scenes tours and clinics for female fans, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees offerÌýÌýgeared to women.

The number of women working professionally in baseball also has grown.ÌýÌýmade history in 2020 when she became the first woman general manager of an MLB team, the Miami Marlins.Ìý, women made up 30% of central office professional staff and 27% of team senior administration jobs. In addition, 43 women held coaching and managerial jobs across the major and minor league levels -- a 95% increase in just two years.

As a fan andÌý, I’m happy to see more women watching baseball and working in the industry. But it still nags at me that the girls and women who play baseball don’t get much recognition, particularly in the U.S.

In the U.S., baseball is seen as a sport for boys and men. Girls and women, on the other hand, are supposed to play softball, which uses a bigger ball and has a smaller field.

It wasn’t always this way.

Women have been playing baseball in the U.S. since at least the 1860s. At women’s colleges such as Smith and Vassar,ÌýÌýas early as 1866. The first professional women’s baseball team was theÌý, a team of Black players formed in Philadelphia in 1867. Barnstorming teams, known asÌý, traveled across the country to play against men’s teams from the 1890s to the 1930s, providing the players with independence and the means to make a living.

°Õ³ó±ðÌý, founded by Philip K. Wrigley in 1943, also offered women the chance to play professionally. The league, which inspired the 1992 film “,â€� required players to wear skirts and makeup while playing and they were fined if they engaged in any behavior deemed “unladylike.â€� Teams were open only to white women and light-skinned Latinas. Black women were not allowed to play, a policy that reflected the segregation of the Jim Crow era.

Ìý-- Connie Morgan, Mamie “Peanutâ€� Johnson and Toni Stone -- did play in the otherwise male Negro Leagues in the early 1950s. But their skills were often downplayed by claims that they’d been signed to generate ticket sales.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, and by the late-1950s women’s participation in baseball had dwindled.

Ìý

Ìýwas invented in Chicago in 1887 as an indoor alternative to baseball.

Originally aimed at men and women, it eventually became the accepted sport for girls and women due to its smaller field, larger ball and underhand pitching style -- aspects deemed suitable for the supposedly weaker and more delicate female body.

The passage ofÌýÌýin 1972 further pushed the popularization of fast-pitch softball, as participation in high school and college increased markedly. In 1974, the National Organization for WomenÌýÌýagainst Little League Baseball because the league’s charter excluded girls from playing. The lawsuit was successful, and girls were permitted to join teams.

In response, Little League created Little League Softball as a way to funnel girls into softball instead of baseball.Ìý, this decision reinforced the gendered division of each sport and “cemented the post-Title IX segregated masculinity of baseball.â€�

Girls can still play baseball, but most are encouraged to eventually switch to softball if they want to pursue college scholarships. If they want to keep playing baseball, they have to constantly confront stubborn cultural beliefs and assumptions that they should be playing softball instead.

Ìý

The U.S. fields aÌýÌýthat competes in the Women’s Baseball World Cup. But they receive scant attention and remain unknown to most baseball fans.

Ìýpublished in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, I argued that the U.S. has experienced inconsistent success on the global stage because of a lack of infrastructure, limited resources and persistent gendered assumptions that hamper the development of women’s baseball. Other countries such asÌý,ÌýÌýandÌýÌýhave established solid pathways that allow girls and women to pursue baseball from the youth level through high school and beyond.

That being said, Opportunities for girls to play baseball are increasing in the U.S. thanks to the efforts of organizations such asÌýÌýandÌý.

About 1,300 girls playÌý, and a handful of young women play on men’sÌýÌýteams each year. In recent years, numerousÌýÌýhave been established; there’s even an annual tournament to crown a national champion.

Ìý

Momentum continues to build.

MLB recently appointedÌýÌýas its first girls baseball ambassador, who will oversee development programs such as theÌýÌýand theÌý. A new documentary film, “,â€� is touring the country to celebrate the growth of women’s baseball and raise awareness of the challenges these athletes face.

Significantly, theÌýÌýannounced it is planning to start play in summer 2026 with six teams located in the northeastern U.S. Over 500 players from 11 countries have registered with the league, with a scouting camp and player draft scheduled for later this year.

Should the league have success, it will mark a revitalization of women’s professional baseball in the U.S., a nod to the rich history of the women’s game and a commitment to securing opportunities for the girls and women who continue to defy cultural norms to play the game they love.