Jen Pawol is making strides toward becoming the MLB's first female umpire, a historic move for the sport. The 47-year-old New Jersey native has been selected for a full-time big league spring training schedule this year, positioning her on the path to umpiring a regular-season MLB game.

The news has yet to be officially announced, but it marks a significant milestone in MLB's history and follows in the footsteps of other sports that have integrated female officials in recent years.

Pawol, a minor league umpire since 2016, has steadily climbed the ranks, culminating in her officiating the Triple-A Championship game last year. Her journey reflects the increasing opportunities for women in baseball, a sport traditionally dominated by male officials. MLB, which employs 76 full-time staff umpires, often brings in fill-ins to cover for injuries and vacations, providing Pawol and others on the call-up list with opportunities to step into big league games.

Ted Barrett, a former big league umpire, highlighted the changing landscape within MLB, emphasizing that the ability to umpire effectively is the primary concern, regardless of gender.

“Right now, it’s at the point in the major leagues, people don’t care race, creed, color, religion, belief. If you can umpire, you can umpire, and if you can’t, you can’t,” Barrett said, per the Associated Press. “The concern of the guys coming up is, ‘Can she umpire?’ If she can, she’ll be accepted and bought in. If she can’t, you got to get her out of there and get somebody else who can.”

An all-state softball and soccer player in high school, Pawol excelled in softball at Hofstra University, later playing for the USA Baseball Women’s national team. Her transition to umpiring came after years of officiating NCAA softball, sparked by encouragement from Barrett and other MLB umpires at a clinic in 2015.  She ended up one of 38 candidates invited to the Umpire Training Academy and in 2016, she secured a position in the Gulf Coast League.

Pawol advanced to the New York/Penn League in 2017, and following the initial two weeks of the 2018 season, she was elevated to the Midwest League. In 2019, she officiated in the South Atlantic League, moved to the High-A Midwest League in 2021, and last year, she was promoted to work in the Double-A Eastern League as well as the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues.

Her rise through the minor league system mirrors the journeys of pioneers like Violet Palmer and Sarah Thomas. Palmer broke new ground as the NBA's inaugural female referee during the Dallas game in Vancouver on Oct. 31, 1997, while Thomas made history as the NFL's first female on-field official, officiating as a line judge in the Kansas City versus Houston game on Sept. 13, 2015. Although the NHL has yet to introduce women as on-ice officials, it has updated the job title from “lineman” to “linesperson” in the current season.