About women being commonplace in top men’s pro sports leagues, at least any time soon. It’s just that there are such large differences in physical strength between men and women when comparing people performing close to 4 standard deviations above the mean level of ability (which is what I quickly calculated is the requirement to compete at a major league level—ask me for my methodology if interested). There is likely considerable overlap between men and women at slightly lower levels of ability (there is certainly a considerable population of women able to compete with men who are between 1 and 2 standard deviations above the mean).

Baseball could be an exception, however, as certain positions (like finesse-type relief pitcher, as mentioned above) allow one to be a very successful despite a lower level of strength or traditionally-defined “skill” (see Chad Bradford, Tim Wakefield, and other successful soft tossing pitchers of today). Other positions in baseball, and possibly a few in other sports (kicker in football, maybe?) would seem like the most likely entry points for women into top-level pro sports leagues. Certain other sports would also provide more likely opportunities for women to compete against men. For example, Annika Sorenstam beat a number of PGA pros at a Tour-sanctioned tournament some years back, though she didn’t make the cut. Equestrian has long had men and women compete against each other and Billie Jean King won the famous Battle of the Sexes in 1973 (though that was against a 55-year old Bobby Riggs).

In sports requiring more strength and speed, I don’t think women will make it any time soon. IIRC, the consensus best women’s hockey player in the world, Hayley Wickenheiser, has been playing for a few years in the second- or third-division Finnish and Swedish leagues. Certainly this is a great accomplishment and a tribute to the strides that female athletes have made recently, but it is still a far cry from having a substantial number of women compete at the highest levels of pro hockey (i.e. the NHL or new Russian Kontinental League). The situation is likely to be similar in sports like basketball and at the so-called “skill” and size-dependent positions in football.

Certainly any woman (any person for that matter) who possesses the skills and ability to compete in a top level sports league must be allowed to do so. I think, however, that I am less convinced than others of the possibility of this happening to any substantial degree in top-level North American sports leagues any time soon.