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Eugene’s Flower Home

BY ALEXIS WEISEND • TWITTER @WEISEND_ALEXIS

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any efficiency upgrades, according proposed by Councilor Jennifer Manager Sarah Medary to community engagement process, as well session to share feedback from develop the framework of a draft motion passed unanimously, but bring up concerns.

BY ALEXIS WEISEND • TWITTER @WEISEND_ALEXIS

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Asking for a Friend is the Daily Emerald’s sex and relationship column. Every other week, Aisha Ghorashian answers anonymous questions about anything from how to date, to sex, to how to heal a broken heart. Scan the QR code to submit a question!

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change,” Syrett said. “Allowing a potential buyer to understand the energy cost of a particular home they are considering allows them to make a wiser choice and understand up front the cost they might face.”

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Clark said Syrett’s comment about savings made sense to him.

The council unanimously passed two other motions: one to direct the city manager to bring back

any efficiency upgrades, according proposed by Councilor Jennifer Manager Sarah Medary to community engagement process, as well session to share feedback from develop the framework of a draft motion passed unanimously, but bring up concerns.

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Keating said renters are noticeably motion, and he supports applying the rental units as well as single-family

to they choice face.” made back funding manager program must be Action B3, council programs Board or the Climate 2.0 is the the free, and

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Randy Groves said he also supports which make up 52% of Eugene’s

Keating said renters are noticeably motion, and he supports applying the rental units as well as single-family Randy Groves said he also supports which make up 52% of Eugene’s Clark said he is concerned that expense would fall back on the or renting a home and worsen the Eugene. communities, obtaining a home between $150 and $300, city of Sustainability Manager Chelsea Clinton cost per score in Portland is $125, agenda.

week! anonymous heal a in week!

to they choice face.” made back funding manager program must be B3, programs Board or the Climate 2.0 is the free, and

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Syrett said a home energy score gain in savings for buyers. considered in the context of all the are all bearing because of climate

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Clark said he is concerned that expense would fall back on the or renting a home and worsen the Eugene. communities, obtaining a home between $150 and $300, city of Sustainability Manager Chelsea Clinton cost per score in Portland is $125, agenda.

Syrett said a home energy score gain in savings for buyers. considered in the context of all the are all bearing because of climate

Sudoku

change,” Syrett said. “Allowing a potential buyer to estimated at $130,000, according to the agenda. Although the proposed home energy score

Women’s Basketball team takes on the UC Davis Aggies on Dec. 1, 2021 at Matthew

Sudoku

Women’s Basketball team takes on the UC Davis Aggies on Dec. 1, 2021 at Matthew Knight Arena. (Serei Hendrie/Emerald)

Knight Arena. (Serei Hendrie/Emerald)

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ON THE COVER

The LGBTQ+ flag and the Trans flag are worn with pride. Eugene Springfield

Pride in the Park takes place at Alton Baker Park on Aug. 10, 2019. (Marissa Willke/Emerald)

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Student Recommends

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PODCAST RECOMMENDATION:

GOSSIP” HOSTED BY KELSEY MCKINNEY

Summary: Normal Gossip” takes everyday people’s gossip and turns it into entertaining podcast episodes. Each episode, host Kelsey McKinney, along with a special guest, discuss an anonymous piece of gossip from the real world. The inspiration for the podcast comes from the lack of normal gossip during the COVID-19 pandemic. McKinney missed the act of gossiping with her friends and hearing others’ crazy stories. She saw the podcast as a way to bring back this normal act to the unprecedented life people were living. The podcast has been successful on various platforms, currently ranking in the top 100 podcasts in the United States on both Apple and Spotify.

Recommended by: Camy Corcoran, sophomore studying Anthropology and Arabic studies. “[They] have people send these insane pieces of gossip from their actual daily lives… it’s so entertaining. It’s just a really fun podcast to have in the background that gives you a couple of good laughs.”

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CITY APPROVES 81-UNIT AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT CITY APPROVES 81-UNIT AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT

City council green lights construction of affordable housing complex on former US Navy Reserve site.

BY ALAN TORRES

Eugene City Council approved the construction of an 81-unit affordable housing complex in the Jefferson neighborhood at the Jan. 23 city council meeting.

The resolution — which awards the project to Homes for Good Housing Agency — passed unanimously. Councilors agreed on the need for more affordable housing in Eugene and had been trying to use the city-owned lot for that purpose for the last few years.

The complex will include 163 bedrooms across 81 units, 80 of which will be reserved for tenants earning 50% or less of Eugene area median income. The remaining unit is for management. Apartments will come with rental assistance to ensure tenants don’t pay more than 30% of their income in rent.

The project includes two four-story buildings and will feature an early learning center, play structures, gathering areas and a parking lot.

“This is just the perfect solution for this available land,” Councilor Emily Semple said.

Construction will cost $44 million and will be funded through a combination of public and private sources.

About $1.9 million of these funds will come from the city — $1.2 million of which was allocated to Eugene for housing development through the federal HOME program, which allocates cities funds for affordable housing. The other $700,000 will come from waived city fees compensated with money from the American Rescue plan which the city allocated for helping affordable housing developers. Councilors considered the cost worthwhile. “Assuming $1 million [for the value of the land] plus the $1.9 million, we’re at $3 million. But it’s going to leverage a $44 million project. That’s a 15:1 leveraging of city funds,” Councilor Alan Zelenka said.

The main concern among councilors was how long the process was taking. According to Eugene Affordable Housing Production Manager Ellen MeyiGalloway, the naval reserve center formerly on the project site was demolished in 2010. Councilor Mike Clark asked why it had taken until now for a proposal to reach city council.

“I am not sure what the answer is,” Meyi-Galloway said, but she shared some theories. While councilors have talked about using the site for affordable housing for some time, it was not formally put into the city’s Housing Implementation Pipeline until January 2022, she said.

The Housing Implementation Pipeline is a work plan passed by city council in January 2022 designed to increase housing affordability. Among other things, the plan identified three city-owned sites optimal for developing affordable housing. The former naval reserve site is one of them.

Meyi-Galloway also referenced a state bill passed in December 2021 allowing private developers to build affordable housing on public land even if not zoned for housing. But she said that since Homes for Good is a public agency, they could have done the project before the bill was passed.

Jefferson Westside Neighbors chair Ted Coopman said the neighborhood association initially requested affordable housing for that location in 2012 and was working to rezone the neighborhood before the law was passed.

He said the passing of the bill pivoted their focus to talking with Homes for Good about the project.

Homes for Good spokesperson Jordyn Shaw wrote over email that the agency had “advocated for years” for the city or county to use the land for affordable housing, but credited its designation under the Housing Implementation Pipeline for starting the process.

Councilor Zelenka said he is conerned about the lack of affordable housing coming from the free market.

“We have zero homes built from the marketplace. Every single one of the units that we do that’s for affordable housing is subsidized,” he said. “We cannot keep going down this path because we’re never going to meet the goal unless we do something different.”

Homes for Good is currently short $3.1 million for the project and is working to close this gap. Homes for Good listed many public and private potential sources of funding. Shaw also suggested the gap could be closed through cost saving measures.

Shaw said she is confident Homes for Good will have funding by June 2024. If it does not, the city will retain the funds it plans to award for the project and will look for other partners to build affordable housing on that lot.

According to Shaw, construction will be complete and Homes for Good will start leasing in summer 2025.

(Illustration by Ia Balbuena-Nedrow/Emerald)

KAVANAUGH: THE VERY LESBIAN HISTORY OF EUGENE

Opinion: Beginning in the late 1960s, Eugene became a bastion for lesbian culture and community building. These days, this rich history is mostly forgotten.

BY: EMILY KAVANAUGH

“The lack of a publicly accessible history is a devastating form of oppression; lesbians face it constantly.”

– Tee Corrine, lesbian photographer and author

Eugene today is mostly known as the home of University of Oregon, for its star athletics and the beautiful nature that surrounds it. In past decades, however, the town was a political hotbed for many progressive and leftist causes –– and in many ways still is. In the 1970s, Eugene was nicknamed the “Lesbian Mecca” for the large lesbian community that sprung up there.

After the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the Gay Rights Movement in the U.S. gained major traction. At a similar time, Second Wave Feminism rose in prominence nationwide, as women were unsatisfied with the repressive norms they had to live under. These two causes, along with growing civil rights, anti-war and environmentalist movements, created an intersection for lesbians to become more united that had never existed before.

Many lesbians grew more assertive with their identities going into the 1970s. They were exasperated with the lack of support for them in the wider feminist movement and the struggles of living under the patriarchy in general. Instead of staying in unaccepting communities, many lesbians wanted to find somewhere where they could truly be themselves and put their ideas about a freer society

into action. Eugene soon became a prime West Coast destination.

“Gay men were moving to San Francisco during those years, and it just seemed like the lesbians were all moving to Eugene, so we just joined the crowd. It was the mass migration,” Basja Samuelson said in her 2018 Eugene Lesbian Oral History interview.

When this wave of women started settling in Eugene, they put down their roots. They started their own businesses, creative groups and communes. This included businesses that were typically male-dominated, such as trucking and printing presses. Women-centered spaces grew to be something incredibly special.

One hub of the community was Mother Kali’s bookstore, which was open for 33 years. There, people could find community groups and events, make friends and read literature from the burgeoning movement of women writers and thinkers, such as Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.

“People didn’t just come there because they wanted to buy a book. What they wanted was human contact and advice,” Lorraine Ironplow said in her interview.

Often, women who had nowhere else to go would become part of the Eugene lesbian and feminist community, such as those coming from abusive situations or financial insecurity. They were given the support they needed, which was hard to find nearly anywhere else.

The audience settles in at the panel moderated by University of Oregon professor Judith Raiskin. The Museum of Natural and Cultural History hosted “Outliers and Outlaws: Stories from the Eugene Lesbian History Project on February 3, 2023. (PaigeRodriguez/Emerald)

As the LGBTQ+ community strengthened in Eugene, they fought for a local ordinance that would ban sexuality-based discrimination in housing and employment. After it passed May 23 1978, one of the first of its kind in the entire country, another group began gathering signatures put a measure on the ballot to repeal it, allowing anti-gay discrimination to stand. This was called Measure 51. Gay men and women alike rallied to stop this rollback. For many of them, it was their first time stepping outside of the confines of the closet and networking specifically with other queer people.

“It was like herding cats,” Harriet Merrick said when describing the No on 51 campaign.

Despite the opposition campaign’s hard work, Measure 51 was voted into law, but opposition to it continued. About two decades later, after more tireless work, it was finally repealed by the city of Eugene and LGBTQ+ discrimination protections remain in place to this day. For those involved, it taught them important parts about activism and identity that they continued to carry with them.

The original lesbian-run businesses and groups in Eugene may not be active anymore, but their legacy still shines brightly. There is a gap in the collective consciousness of Eugene residents about the community built up together by lesbians here. Not only did they support each other as individuals, but also put their shared resources together to fight for broader gay rights protections and against harmful legislation and measures around the country.

Currently, the U.S. is going through an alarming wave of regressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, with many targeting the transgender community specifically. Much of this is the right wing’s reaction to the massive wins in LGBTQ+ rights in recent years. In 2022, the country saw the highest number of anti-trans bills ever in a single year. In Oregon as of January, the ACLU is tracking six anti-LGBTQ bills. This includes a bill requiring that students only play in sports that align with their biological sex and one that prohibits teachers from speaking about anything related to sexual orientation in the classroom.

The same kind of community-based activism in Eugene’s past is needed to work against the growing threats to LGBTQ+ safety in the present day. While large organizations like GLAAD and PFLAG are important, a lot of the effort will still rely on grassroots community building. The U.S. is reaching a critical tipping point with the far right, who seek to gain more and more control, often starting on the most local levels at school boards and city councils.

The Outliers and Outlaws Lesbian Oral History project, which extensively documents the lesbian history of Eugene, is available online and also has its own exhibit at the UO Natural History Museum as of Jan. 28. It will be there for the rest of 2023 and is free to all university students. To properly preserve and carry on this often-forgotten part of history, everyone in the community should see it for themselves. It is a tumultuous, scary time for LGBTQ+ rights and the past is one of the best resources to continue the fight.

Enid Lefton (right) laughs as Debbie Martin (left) shares stories from her time with WYMPROV, an all women comedy troupe. The Museum of Natural and Cultural History hosted “Outliers and Outlaws: Stories from the Eugene Lesbian History Project on February 3, 2023. (PaigeRodriguez/Emerald)

OPINION

ELECTRIC FAÇADE MORALES: ELECTRIC FAÇADE

As we know, the U.S. has a very car-centric society that has shaped almost everything we do on a daily basis. Today, it seems as if every major car company in the U.S. is jumping on the electric vehicle (EV) craze. These ads often sell themselves as being a better alternative than gas-powered vehicles. Even though this transition would surely reduce individual carbon emissions, it will not be enough to make an actual major difference when combating climate change on a national and global level.

The Nuclear Energy Institute — which estimates the net electricity for each U.S. state including D.C. — calculated in 2021 that 74.5% of the country still relies on fossil fuel plants for electricity. This includes coal, natural gas and petroleum;

which are all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. This is a problem because most EV owners buy their cars because they believe it will eventually hinder the fossil fuel industry over time. However, they do not realize that each time they charge their new car, this electricity is most likely to be generated by a fossil fuel plant, which would cancel out the fact that the consumer is not individually polluting the environment. These ads created by the EV industry thus fall into the capitalist trap known as greenwashing. Greenwashing is when a company or corporation spends more time and money marketing itself as being environmentally friendly than actually minimizing its effect. So what is this façade?

EVs can make only a minimal difference when

EDITORIAL CARTOON:

BY ANTONIO MORALES

combating climate change depending on your U.S. state. This is due to the fact that states such as Oregon, which relies on renewable energy for their electricity, erases the carbon emissions needed to charge EVs. However, in states such as Missouri, which relies on the coal industry for its electricity, charging your car means burning more coal. Interestingly, not only is the charging inconsistently sustainable but the materials needed for the batteries of these vehicles are just as damaging to the environment.

Lithium, nickel and cobalt are just a few of the raw materials required for the EV industry’s lithium-ion batteries. Unfortunately, extracting these raw materials is extremely dangerous and harmful to the local environments of these mines. This brings us to our next issue: the exploitation of the global south. Tesla — one of the world’s top EV brands — buys 85% of its raw materials from China and Chinese-controlled supply chains. These Chinese-controlled supply chains can be found anywhere from Central Africa to South America. The problem with these raw material producers is that they are susceptible to creating detrimental environmental damages including groundwater pollution, destruction of wildlife, topsoil corrosion and harmful runoff from chemicals used in some mining operations. None of these issues scream sustainability and that is where the problems just keep piling on.

Profit and ignorance are the main takeaways when considering the EV industry. Keep this in mind the next time a Tesla tries to run you off the road.

Antonio is an editorial cartoonist for the Daily Emerald. He is a fourth-year student studying History and Anthropology. Antonio’s cartoons emphasize the cultural and social significance of current events. and its direct impact on UO.

Opinion: The electric vehicle industry fails to truly combat climate change due to inconsistent energy production and the harmful extraction of raw materials.

“ELECTRIC FA ÇADE”

(Illustration by Antonio Morales/Emerald)

SIX NEW ENLIGHTENING NOVELS BY BLACK AUTHORS

Honor Black History Month by checking out these recent and forthcoming novels from Black writers examining topics like race, family, love, capitalism and incarceration

BY PHILIP CHAN

Often to the ire of the dominant discourse, African American literature has had a rich history of examining the nation’s racial politics. Titles like “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas are among the most challenged books in America.

As parents and politicians continue to wage war against books in schools and libraries, we are reminded of the power of literature. Celebrate the accomplishments of Black writers this Black History Month by supporting any of the following novels, some of which are more personal, others more political, but all powerful in their own ways.

FOR YOUNG-ADULT READERS: “INVISIBLE SON” BY KIM

JOHNSON

Following her successful 2020 debut, “This is My America,” Kim Johnson is back with her second social justice thriller in June. Johnson is UO’s very own vice provost for undergraduate education and student success.

In nearby Portland, Oregon, Andre Jackson is released from juvenile detention, having taken the blame for a crime he didn’t commit. Things have changed: the neighborhood is being gentrified, and the schools have closed to COVID-19. When Andre turns to his beloved neighbors, he finds his crush Sierra has moved on to someone else, and her brother Eric — Andre’s best shot at clearing his name — is missing. To get his life back, Andre sets out to find Eric and prove his innocence.

FOR FANS OF DYSTOPIAN FICTION: “CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS” BY NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are lovers and prison inmates. They’re also teammates in a controversial program which offers them a chance to earn their freedom. All they have to do is compete against other prison

gangs — before crowded arenas and streaming audiences — in gladiator fights to the death.

The dystopian novel is a gutting examination of the relationship between racism, capitalism and mass incarceration. Releasing in May, it’s the first novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. His short story collection “Friday Black” won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award in 2019.

FOR READERS OF COMEDIC CONTEMPORARY FICTION: “THE SURVIVALISTS” BY KASHANA CAULEY

Devoted Midtown lawyer Aretha starts dating Brooklyn coffee entrepreneur Aaron. With an offer to live rent-free, she decides to move in with him and his eclectic housemates, but there’s a catch — they’re gun-toting survivalists living in a doomsday bunker.

Released Jan. 10, Kashana Cauley’s debut novel explores questions of corporate America and gun ownership. Cauley does so with humor, as her writing credits include the television shows “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and “The Great North.” Her writing has also appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker and Rolling Stone.

FOR FANS OF MAGICAL REALISM: “THE HUMAN ORIGINS OF BEATRICE PORTER AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GHOSTS” BY SORAYA PALMER

Zora and Sasha Porter are Jamaican-Trinidadian sisters living in Brooklyn. They share a love for folktales as children, but illness and violence in the family pushes them apart as they grow older. Zora dreams of becoming a writer, and Sasha explores her gender and sexuality. Soon they must come back together to reckon with a ghost and a family secret.

Releasing in March, this is the debut novel from Soraya Palmer, a Brooklyn-born writer and licensed social worker. Her work has appeared in

Ploughshares and other publications.

FOR FANS OF COMING-OF-AGE STORIES: “MAAME” BY JESSICA GEORGE

Maddie Wright lives an unfulfilled life in London, working a dull administrative job with a bad boss and being the primary caretaker for her father, who has Parkinson’s. Her mother spends most of her time in Ghana, but when she comes to London, Maddie jumps at the chance to move out and live her own life.

Like her character, author Jessica George was born and raised in London to Ghanaian parents. “Maame” is her debut novel, released Jan. 31, and it’s already in development as a TV series from Universal International Studios and Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices, according to Deadline.

FOR FANS OF HISTORICAL HORROR: “LONE WOMEN” BY VICTOR LAVALLE

It’s 1914. Adelaide Henry is alone and in trouble in the American West, having fled her California hometown to head for Montana. Adelaide has a sin and a secret — her parents are dead, and she keeps her steamer trunk locked at all times since, whenever she opens it, people disappear.

“Lone Women” releases in March. The historical horror novel is the fifth novel by Victor LaValle, whose previous work includes a short story collection, a novella and other writing in the likes of GQ and The Washington Post.

From Portland to New York and London, from the 20th century into the future, these novels can take you on exciting and emotional adventures. Considering supporting these new works by Black writers. Read and reflect on Black history and the power of Black stories.

Lynette Slape / Daily Emerald

HILLSBORO HOPS AND THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS MAKE A HISTORIC MOVE

BY NINA-GRACE MONTES

at the lower levels of baseball, will be duplicated at the highest level shortly after. Whether it’s in coaching, writing or data analytics, more women are starting to get involved in a sport they grew up watching. Gajownik and all of the other women who are working in sports are showing younger generations that they have a seat at the table.

“It’s really empowering,” Kyrstin Ginter, a UO student and the Game Director for the Eugene Emeralds, a local minor league team for the San Francisco Giants, said. “I hope that this can be a sign of change and a positive step for women who work in baseball.”

At the start of the 2022 season, there were 33 women who had some type of coaching role across the major and minor league levels, which is the most in professional baseball history. According to a report done by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, Major League Baseball received a C+ in their gender hiring, which is the highest they’ve received since UCF started releasing its report cards.

my life would have been changing in the trajectory of where I wanted to go,” Gajownik said. “The visibility aspect of it is huge, because again, it’s showing little girls and women that we’re breaking glass ceilings, and we’re leaving the breadcrumbs for everybody behind us for us just to keep adding on to it to see how far we can go.”

Before making her decision to focus on coaching, she bounced back and forth between baseball and softball. She was an infielder at the University of South Florida, and after she graduated, she won a gold medal with the USA Women’s baseball team during the 2015 Pan American games in Canada.

From there, she went to Liberty University and worked as a graduate assistant coach with the softball team. She moved into full-time coaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for three years before transferring into professional baseball.

In early October, Ronnie Gajownik got an unexpected call.

Josh Barfield’s — the Director of Player Development for the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system — name popped up on Gajownik’s phone while she was cleaning her apartment. She was nervous to pick up the phone as most people do when their boss calls them.

“Hey Ronnie, how’s it going?” he asked her.

“Yeah, you know, just cleaning my blinds, no big deal,” she answered nervously.

“We want to go ahead and talk to you about next season. We’d really like for you to be up in Hillsboro [Oregon]. Oh, wait, hold on a second. I’m getting another call,” he tells her.

Barfield hangs up and she stares at her phone for 30 seconds before it rings again. During that short time, which felt like forever, she kept wondering what her new role would be.

He gets back on the line and tells her “we want you to be the manager in Hillsboro.”

Gajownik will be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ High-A affiliate Hillsboro Hops manager making her the first female manager to coach at this level. Minor league baseball is a driving force behind the majors, so any change that happens

Over the past few years, different women across baseball have been making headlines. Between Kim Ng, the first female general manager in baseball, Genevieve Beacom, who made her Australian Baseball League debut at the age of 17, Alyssa Nakken, MLB’s first female coach, and the many other women who have broken down barriers, baseball is becoming the sport for everybody.

With the hiring of Gajownik, more women are starting to see themselves at the table.

“It feels great to get this opportunity, especially with the Diamondbacks,” Gajownik said. “They saw my potential in me as a coach and as a person. Hopefully, everybody who’s been involved with me and also all of the little girls and women who are seeing this know that if you’re qualified, you can do it and that’s all you need to be.”

After she got the news over the phone, she threw her body onto her couch and started to reflect. “It feels a little surreal to be honest with you,” Gajownik said. “I was definitely shocked. Once I started assessing it, I was like ‘yes, this makes sense’.”

When she was younger growing up in Orlando, Florida, her dad would pull her out of school and take her to Spring Training games. It didn’t matter what team it was, they just wanted to spend time together watching baseball. It was something that they bonded over, but when she looked out onto the field, there wasn’t anyone that looked like her.

“I know that if my dad took me out of school on a Wednesday, and we went to a baseball game, and I saw a female coach on the field. I know Thursday

In early 2021, the Arizona Diamondbacks hired Gajownik as a video assistant for the Hops, but after the Amarillo Sod Poodles’ — the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate — head coach Javier Colina was injured, they promoted her to be their first base coach.

“She went out there and it took her about two seconds to fit right into the group,” Barfield said. “She did a great job working with the guys in Amarillo. She’s just got such an ease about her, the way she connects with people. I think some of the best coaches — obviously they have good content and she has that. But I also think they’re incredible connectors and she’s definitely one of those. She shows leadership; she shows initiative.” When it came time to put together the various coaching staffs for the 2023 season, Barfield called her an easy choice.

Being a coach at any level is a tough job, but at the professional level, it’s a different story. Even though she’s the first female manager at the High-A level, she’s the second female manager in professional baseball. Rachel Balkovec, who became the first woman last season, coaches the New York Yankees’ Low-A team, the Tampa Tarpons. When the news broke about Gajownik, she immediately called her. They talked about the excitement of the position, the struggles of being a woman in sports and just being a manager in general, and tips for the upcoming season. It wasn’t the whirlwind of emotions that she felt while talking to Barfield in early last October, rather, a harbinger for conversations to come as Gajownik will soon field calls from other women who will have similar roles.

Ronnie Gajownik becomes the first female manager to coach a High-A level affiliate baseball team ahead of National Women and Girls in Sports day.

Ronnie Gajownik was promoted to the role of manager for the Hillsboro Hops, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Arizona Diamondbacks)