Jen Pawol is set to become the first woman to umpire a game in Major League Baseball when she works games this weekend between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves.
Pawol will work the bases in Saturday’s doubleheader at Truist Park and the plate on Sunday, MLB said Wednesday.
Pawol, a 48-year-old from New Jersey, worked spring training games in 2024 and this year. She’s the seventh woman to work as a professional baseball umpire, with her career beginning back in 2016 in the Gulf Coast League after years of umpiring in amateur softball.
In 2023, Pawol reached the Triple-A level and worked games in both the International and Pacific Coast Leagues, as well as serving as the home plate umpire during the Triple-A National Championship Game that’s played between the winners of those two leagues. She was the first woman to ump games in Triple-A in 34 years, per MiLB.
When Pawol worked as an umpire in 2024’s spring training, she became just the third-ever woman umpire to do so. Pawol returned to spring training in 2025, and in between was placed on MLB’s call-up list.
After appearing in a spring training game in 2024 – the first woman to do so since 2007 – Pawol explained that, “This is a viable career becoming a professional umpire – men and women, girls and boys. I didn’t know that the first several years when I got into umpiring in amateur ball for 10 years.”
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MLB’s move comes 28 years after the gender barrier for game officials was broken in the NBA, 10 years after it ended the NFL and three years after the men’s soccer World Cup employed a female referee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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