Gender And Hockey

Introduction

When woman's interests in playing hockey started gaining popularity in the early 70's, numerous negative views, court cases and several woman requests started to appear on whether they be should allowed to play with the males (Williams, 1995). Due to the "masculinity" in the sport, much of the society looked down upon the women playing hockey all together, but playing alongside the men was even more difficult to fathom for many male politicians and sports identities (Stevens, 2000). Today, the NHL still consists of all male teams, male owners, and a 67% male fan base (Armstrong, 2001), and not much has changed in the past century. This paper will take a look back into how the history of gender and hockey has changed and what has been done to further the woman's want to play in the game. Court sessions, excessive/lack of coverage, alleged gender discrimination, injury and bias spectator opinions have lead the pasts, male dominated, society to deny women playing time with males in the NHL today. By looking at and analyzing the media coverage, NHL/national games, previous attempts to put women on the ice, and the differences between the two genders while playing the same game, we can further understand the process and expectations of the society towards our "national sport."

Media

The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891 (Stevens, 2000) but it wasn't till 1899 that the females playing a four on four game slightly appeared in the newspaper (Stevens, 2000). Media coverage is a big difference between men's and female's hockey meaning a lack of coverage for the female teams (Vig, 2001). Local newspapers didn't even cover any major women's hockey details until the Olympics in 1998 compared to the numerous daily updates in men's hockey (Vig, 2001). Even to the 2006 Olympic games in Salt Lake City, the media coverage was minimal for the females. Mary Louis Adams (2006) discusses the different media coverage for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games where the Canadian male hockey team won gold compared to the women's take home of the gold there aswell. More than half the newspapers were filled with pictures of the male team, stories and interviews, posters and articles but the women's team were lucky to be seen on half of one page (Adams, 2006). ''Readers were also told that the men's victory (no mention of the women) "deserves to be considered among the defining moments in Canada's collective experience, right there with pivotal elections and Expo 67"" (Adams, 2006).

Not only does the media cover mainly male themed accomplishments, but the media also markets hockey to a male audience when gaining consumers and advertising their sport products (Armstrong, 2001). Armstrong (2001) refers to Shank's (1999) overview of the womens sport consumption in his paper to understand the different hockey merchandise and the difference between the male and female buyers. Shank (1999) left out the hockey league in his study, but he found that between 1989 and 1993 the fan base for the NFL was "comprised of 43% females; women comprised 46% of the MLB fan base; (and) the NBA reported that women comprised of 40% of its adult fan base (Armstrong, 2001)." It is easy to see that women do not only want to play in these male dominated sports, but they are also making up of nearly half of the sports fan bases. Shank (1999) did however, find that 35% of the total National Hockey League total sales, were from females buying merchandise for themselves. Armstrongs study revealed that "males and females were similarly attracted to the ice hockey event to share the experience with their families, for entertainment, and because they were fans of hockey" which helps society understand that the feeling towards the "National Canadian game" are much similar between males and females (Armstrong, 2001).

The lack of female media coverage has not made a big impact of the way females see ice hockey as a national sport. Females are still buying the NHL merchandise, 35% for themselves, and are still a big part of keeping the game alive (Armstrong, 2001). If newspapers were to cover more female hockey accomplishments, the female audience for the sport could drastically increase, and women would have the opportunity to have an equal marketing position on the ice as the males do, in that just as many people could easily buy women hockey material as they do men's.

Difference in the Games

When hockey started in Canada, it was automatically a popular game for the males, and everyone wanted to join in. Women's popularity in the sport however, took a while to catch on and it wasn't till the 1930's when women's hockey included many independent governing associations (Stevens, 2000). Having the governing associations at national and provincal levels was a big step in women's hockey as it gave females more rights in the sport and they were able to "stage formalized league and regional competitions, and held a sanctioned national championship (Stevens, 2000)." Overall, women's hockey started more independent, with less supporters than the men's hockey league had when they started (Stevens, 2000). Without the community supports as well as the independent women who were involved in sports, it would have taken longer for the women to get nationally on the ice as they had a big impact on the whole process (Stevens, 2000).

Women's hockey, unlike mens, is not played at a professional level (Vig, 2001). Males can play the game they love and make a lot of money from it, switching teams to make more money, but females do not get paid (Vig, 2001). In order for the females to play the game, they actually have to pay a participation fee, therefore most of the female players have careers outside of the sport and lack the opportunities to bond as a team outside of playing time, especially in the off season (Vig, 2001). It is easy to see that the women in the game are playing it for the fun and not for the money, so in a result of these women not getting paid, the "league eliminated intentional body checking in 1990. This makes the women's game less about physicality and more about finesse. (Vig, 2001).

In order to find equality in the sport, Divisional Court of Ontario, OHA regulations, Canadian Charter of Plights and freedom, The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and numerous other groups had been confronted or look on for help over the years by other divisions, players, and charters (Williams, 1995). The main focus of all debates is "allowing girls to play on boys teams and