In the late 1860s, Louisa May Alcott, author of the popular novel Little Women, wanted to try her hand at genres she did not typically write, which turned out to be stories only men had written up to that point. To increase her chances of getting her new works published, she wrote under a male pen name, A M Barnard.
More than a century later, Rachel Balkovec has just finished an internship with the St. Louis Cardinals and was looking for a full-time position. Despite having four years of experience playing Division I softball, a bachelor’s degree in exercise science, and a master’s degree in kinesiology, after applying for 15 different professional sports organizations in the Phoenix area, she only heard back from one.
“We went through the whole interview process, and he offered me a job. I accepted it and was told that HR would reach out in a couple of days, but I never heard from them. A couple of weeks went by with just silence on their end, so I followed up,” said Ms. Balkovec. “Finally, this guy calls me back and he expressed that he really wants to follow through with hiring me, but that the organization’s front office was not ready or willing to hire a woman with their players at that time… He then broke the news to me that he also called around to all the teams that had open roles in the area, the ones I applied to, and they all said the same thing. They weren’t willing to hire a woman. That was the first time that I fully understood the industry’s perspective at the time on women working with professional athletes.”
Not one to shy away from a fight, Ms. Balkovec pushed onward. After continuing to only be offered jobs with women’s sports, Ms. Balkovec took another internship where she worked in both softball and baseball while she waitressed on the side as well. After the internship came to an end, Ms. Balkovec again applied to multiple professional baseball organizations in the off season, but, this time, her sister proposed a change to her resume to hopefully increase her chances. Following in the footsteps of women like Louisa May Alcott, Ms. Balkovec used a male pseudonym on her resume, changing it from “Rachel” to “Rae.” Finally, she was getting phone interviews.
“To be honest with you, it was short lived, because, you know, eventually they were going to find out I was a woman. But, when I did submit my resume with the name Rae on it, I started getting phone…
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