Topic: Women’s Hockey

Throughout my childhood, I always found myself participating in many team sports and events. Ringette and hockey seemed to be the two main interests that I had back then, and hockey ended up earning its spot in my endless list of hobbies. Now that I am older, and I have witnessed different events in the hockey and the team sports community, I would love to learn more about the differences between the male sports community and the female sports community. Although there is the evidential difference in gender when it comes to these two different groups, there is also a large popularity difference due to the lack of consideration around female sport. In 1891, the first female hockey game was recorded in Ottawa, marking an important time in history; however, the significance of this event was overshadowed by the already famous NHL who recorded their first hockey game in 1873, only 16 years before the women.  

Due to the significant male dominance in the society back then and even still today, female hockey was only introduced to the Olympics in 1998, making it seem as though female hockey was a new and up and coming sport; even though it had already existed for over 100 years. Eight years before female hockey was accepted into the Olympics, in 1990, team Canada at the first ever women’s hockey championship dressed in all pink to raise awareness for this “new” sport. Although this controversial act got some pushback from society, it also led to a 40% increase in registration for girls’ hockey in the upcoming year, which might have led to the sport being accepted into the 1998 winter Olympics.  

Overall, I believe that with the progress female hockey has made while climbing up the levels of acceptance in society, we will still be able to see a steady increase in the popularity of the sport in the years to come. If this intricate, skillful, and fast game continues to become even more important in our communities, maybe one day we’ll have an NHL sized fan group cheering on the amazing women and girls of hockey’s future.