Females in Male Dominated Sports

Being a female in a male dominated sport, I have experienced a few different reactions. When a guy hears that I play ice hockey at first they all seem a little impressed or say that they never expected me to play because I’m not the “intimidating or aggressive type.” However, after that initial reaction, there are several avenues the conversation can go.

“That’s so cool, I didn’t even know that many girls played…” This response makes most of us female hockey players feel the best. It seems to show genuine interest in our sport choices and possible intrigue in our skill level. These responses encourage us to continue, instead of having someone talking to us in a condescending tone that makes us feel inadequate and question why we bother playing. They don’t make you prove yourself, but accept you because you even try to play. No one will make you jump through hoops to be on their team, rather encourage you to play and help your development as a player.

“Do you guys hit each other and get in fights? Maybe I’ll go watch a game, if I get to see that…” When we hear this, it makes us feel as though they only come because they hope to see “girl-on-girl action” as they often put it. It shows that they don’t care about the sport or our skill, just seeing girls drop the gloves would be fun to watch. For a few of my friends, it made them not want to admit that they even play because she was tired of hearing that response and didn’t want their support at our games because fights aren’t the point of the game, although are considered important in the NHL when talking about momentum.

“You don’t honestly play, do you?” or “You really think you can keep up with us? You must be a dirty player or something…” Yet, when you do try to play with the guys, some will play that much harder or play to the extent where you almost have to play a little dirty to compete with them. I’ve found that some guys will make it so much harder to a girl to try playing with them than a male. One day, for example, we were picking teams for a pick-up game; of course I was near the end to get picked. Although they knew I had skill, they were willing to pick a male who just learned how to skate over me because “no one wanted a girl on their team.” I know that not all males are like this, but it does occur often, especially in male dominated sports and women need to learn how to deal with it because at times it does make it difficult to focus on your game when you’re the only person that believes you have the skill to “play with the big boys.”

I know this is very idealistic, but it should not matter the gender of an athlete. Males and females should have to meet the same standards. If a female is better, she should be viewed as better and vice versa. I understand the some males don't want women playing their "masculine" or male dominated sport or what have you, but not many men wanted women involved in sports at all before.

B. Wells

Kin 339i