My childhood was filled with memories of being outside, kicking the ball as far as I could across the field, and skating across my local community center’s rink every Saturday. I loved playing sports, and my childhood best friend loved it even more, particularly hockey.
While I carefully practiced turns and my cross-overs religiously, she would fly down the ice, weaving around every passerby as if they were defenders of the other team. She carried this intensity on the ice. On the weekends we didn’t attend the free Saturday night skates, I’d sit in the stands and watch her play in our Tim Hortons-sponsored community girls league. Because of her, hockey felt like a women’s sport to me. She loved hockey, and it was what I celebrated about her.
As I grew older, I noticed that outside of my childhood experiences, hockey was rarely seen as a women’s sport. Branded as hyper-masculine, I realized that hockey was widely recognized for its body checks and culture of toughness. And today, that image is finally shifting. Women’s sports are in the middle of a renaissance.
From the record-breaking views during WNBA games to the surge in viewership in National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), women athletes are being recognized on a larger stage. Hockey is also part of this transformation. With the launch of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) in 2023, women’s hockey is becoming a viable career path for women athletes and inviting a new generation, with Asian American women leading the pack, to see themselves on the ice.
How Hockey Became a Predominantly Male Sport
Hockey has gotten the reputation of being a violent sport due to its notorious loud body slams on the rink or the fights that break out on the sides. This masculine and aggressive image was crafted in the 1920s. Despite the rising number of women hockey players during and after World War I, sports journalists, arena owners, and hockey promoters decided to brand hockey as a masculine…
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