GrawOzburn UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research VII (2004) The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Pioneers in Their Own Right

The war years of the 1940’s saw unprecedented numbers of women entering the public realm in numerous traditionally male occupations. The war left scores of businesses, including baseball, without adequate labor. Driven by the fear that Major League Baseball would be shut-down for the duration of the war, Philip K. Wrigley created a women’s league as a back-up plan to keep baseball alive. The league existed from 1943 to 1954. It eventually became known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The aim of this project was to look at the stories and experiences of the women of the AAGPBL through oral history interviews and relate those experiences to the larger social developments and norms of the 1940’s and 1950’s. The examination focused on how these women were able to acquire the skills necessary to play baseball at a professional level traditionally dominated by men; how as women they were able to slip through the cracks of societal norms while others accepted the predestination of home and family; what not conforming to societal norms meant for these women and their interaction with their communities; and how their personal outlook on life was influenced by their league experience