Courtesy of The Daily Mail
Growing up on the East Coast, hockey was a part of everyone’s lives whenever the local ponds froze over. I would often play with all of my friends’ dads in their Bruins jerseys and sometimes I would even see my Spanish teacher out playing too. Usually, my sister and I were the only girls on the ice. All throughout history, women have consistently been excluded from, and their abilities have been underestimated in contact sports such as hockey. My grandmother often shared stories of her high school days when she played basketball, where the girls were restricted to only using half of the court during games, which was a clear indication of how limited opportunities were for female athletes. This historical context makes it all the more remarkable that women in hockey are now breaking barriers and fighting for equality in the sport.
It was not until August 2023 that the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was established. This new league gave young, female players the opportunity to dream of having a future in the sport they love. The Toronto Scepters forward Rebecca Leslie expressed how she felt after playing her first game in an interview with The Score.
“I will never forget the feeling that I had on Jan. 1 standing on the blue line for our player introductions. Billie Jean King dropping the puck alongside Jayna Hefford literally brought tears to my eyes. So much hard work and sacrifice went into creating the league. I’m always in awe of the number of little girls along the glass in warmups. It’s so cool that they can now dream to play professionally,” Leslie said.
After 137 games, the first fight in the PWHL happened in Canada on Thursday, Feb. 20. Boston Fleet’s forward Jill Saulnier and Ottawa Charge’s position Tereza Vanisova will go down in history as the first women in the PWHL to throw some hands. Even though no gloves were dropped, powerful punches were thrown.
It began when Saulnier came flying in to slam Vanisova against the boards. As they battled for the puck, Saulnier whacked Vanisova while she was getting up off the ice. Once up, Vanisova snatched Saulnier’s stick right out of her hands.
In the post-game interview, Boston Fleet player Theresa Schafzahl commented on the incident.
“It gave our team a boost and was exciting to see,” said Schafzahl..
This moment marked a significant milestone in the league’s history, showing that women could hold their own in all aspects of the game, including physicality. It is interesting how women are often thought to have a harder time controlling their emotions than men, but the fact that there are way more fights in men’s hockey games versus women’s says differently. This could be because it’s more normalized for men to fight in hockey games, where men are praised when they engage in physical confrontations, though when women do the same, they are often labeled as “too emotional.”
For anyone who does not watch hockey, fighting is a common occurrence in National Hockey League games, but this fight marks the first in women’s professional hockey. Even though fighting is not something to be glorified it can be a way for the women in the PWHL to prove that they are tough enough to be on the ice as well. We have a long way to go when it comes to gender equality in sports, but the PWHL is off to a good start in helping change some of the social norms.
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