Hockey. It's the national sport of our country. If you have watched the movie ‘Chak de India’, then I’m pretty confident that you have an idea about the difficulties that some promising female hockey players have to deal with for a chance to move forward in the sport they love. Hockey is one of the many sports where female victories go unreported and do not come to light, no matter whether it is at the national or the international level.
There are not many high schools around the world with an all-female hockey team. As a matter of fact, there are 31 teams in the NHL(National Hockey League) and only 5 teams in the NHWL (National Women’s Hockey League); so, it comes as no surprise that there exists inequality in high school sports. Under the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association), girls are not allowed to check other players. This rule follows an outdated stereotype that girls are fragile than their male counterparts. Nauset student athlete Margaret Dixon says, “My freshman year of high school, I played on a boys ice hockey team. The boys didn’t treat me the same just because I was a girl. Playing girls hockey has made me see why we should be checking. Yes, girls are not 200lbs and 6 feet tall, but we are still hockey players.” Seniors at Monomoy, Molly McKenna and Delany Agnes,go on to say, “I don’t know if it’s a sport that will ever truly have equality because men’s hockey is clearly a bigger deal.”
Here, I would also like to add that girls at Nauset (regional high school located in north Eastham, Massachusetts, US) had to pay 500 dollars to play in high school season; These girls almost never had buses for away games, and all the players had to buy their own jersey and socks in contrast to the boys hockey team which was fully funded. Although this unfairness ended last year, there remains some degrading practices that they had to tolerate. Some of these practices included not getting to sing the national anthem which is standard in hockey games, there are no announcements that call out first line players. Players who are proud of their position and capability are often denied publicity. Such practices tend to lessen a person’s passion for the sport. On professional level, Hockey, like most team sports, has lesser media coverage, a huge pay gap and very few tournaments for women’s teams.
Result of this discrimination?
In the month of January 2020, about 20 young Calgary players and former CWHL athletes took to the ice at the Seton YMCA to raise awareness about gender inequality in Canadian hockey at the Secret Equal Sweat, Equal Opportunity Skate Rally with hopes to inspire a viable women’s professional hockey league. Some professional players also reflected on the collapse of CWHL in the month of May 2019, which left top female players with nowhere to train, no opportunity to compete and no access to the resources, facilities or coaching staff the sport demands. Similar events took place in Montreal and Toronto on the same day to draw attention to the lack of opportunity and support for professional female hockey players in North America.
In 2017, the US National Women’s Hockey team grew tired of the unfair treatment and decided to boycott the world championship when it was being held on home soil. They fought for fair treatment and equitable support. Increased marketing and visibility, more programming and better funding were their demands. On 28th of March 2017, a new contract was made after wage agreement.
But enough about the US, lets talk about India now. When the men’s hockey team in India wins medals, it reaps an ample reward. That however is not the case with women’s team. Female hockey players find employment only in railways, whereas the male players land jobs in many public companies. There’s a huge contrast with attendance in games in India which is telling for limited tournaments for women. During the Hockey World league Round 2 in New Delhi 2012, the stands were empty, whereas spectators attended the Olympics qualifying tournament for men in large numbers. It comes as no surprise that the achievements of Women’s hockey team in India in most cases goes under appreciated. The best example for that would be in 2012, the media celebrated the qualification of men’s team for the London Olympics, while the achievement of the Indian women’s team in reaching the final of the Olympics qualifying tournament in New Delhi was under reported. However, on 5th of March this year, sports authority of India in association with Hockey India announced the first edition of the Khelo India Women’s Hockey League (Under 21), organized by Hockey India. Such leagues are going to shine some light on this underrated sport. Hopefully a lot more schools and colleges will form a women’s hockey team and conduct external tournaments. Here’s another exciting fact, the Indian Women’s National field hockey team (aka the Golden girls of hockey, nicknamed Nabhvarna) is ranked 9th in FIH World Ranking, by producing its best finish in four decades at a Women’s World Cup as they made their way to Quarter-Finals of the Vitality Women’s World Cup 2018. It reflects the unprecedented growth that we will be witnessing in the coming future.
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