“The greatest contribution you can make to womens’ rights is to be the absolute best… at what you do” -Oprah Whinfrey. In the 1990’s hitting in womens’ hockey was made illegal. Body checking is very big part of ice hockey in my eyes and I believe many people would agree with that. So when I realized that it wasn’t allowed in womens’ hockey, but it was in mens? It got me thinking on why? Why would it be allowed for men, but illegal in womens’? Well the only reason I ever found, was because women had less pain tolerance than men. WHAT?! In my eyes that is so sexist and I think that women deserve equal rights in all areas, INCLUDING sports.

Circumstantial? I think NOT

All rules in ALL sports are different between genders, don’t even try to tell me they aren’t. But here’s the thing, most of them are circumstantial. 

• Net height in volleyball
• Basket height in basketball
• Yardage in golf

Notice something? All of these things can be measured over time, averages can be made. Height has to do with the average height of a woman, golf tours take the average yardage hit by women and come to a conclusion based off of that data. But what about tolerance of pain? Was that based off of data? NOPE! It was purely based off of the sexist opinions in our society. So why is checking/ body hitting in hockey okay in men’s hockey, but not women’s? Funny isn’t it? Show me the numbers that prove women have had a lower tolerance of pain than men do, REAL numbers and data. Not some stupid sexist article.

The Past Leads To The Present

Body checking in women’s hockey has not been allowed since the 1990’s. The NHL is facing difficulties with head injuries along with the NFL, extreme measures are being taken to learn how to minimize these injuries and their long term effects on players, such as brain damage. These tests need a constant just like any other experimental data, and what’s the perfect constant for testing the results of head injuries due to checking and fights as opposed to little to no checking? Women’s hockey. One of the large debates on the table about changes made to the rules regarding checking and fights in women’s hockey, is that they’re the only players in the league with minimum trauma and injury. So why would they now make it “okay” to hit when they’re trying to put an end to these injuries once and for all?

Photo By: Kyle Chipchura

Is anybody talking about it?

 A return to body checking in women’s hockey has not been seriously considered. But the game has plenty of body contact even with the rule, players say.“Women’s hockey could be a worthy case study at a time when major contact sports are looking at ways to reduce traumatic injuries to players.” USA Hockey recently raised the age that body checking is allowed to 14 from 12. Hockey historians say “the push to ban body-checking 30 years ago was motivated by a desire for a less-brutal style of play and a game that parents felt was safe for their children.”

Why Women Can’t Match Mens Talent

“You don’t see the huge, deliberate hits like you do in the men’s game, but there is plenty of physicality.”Coaches need to emphasize there is indeed contact in the girls’ game. As girls progress, just like in the boys’ game, it becomes more and more physical.

“The play gets faster and there’s going to be more body contact,” Brodt-Brown said. “If you go watch a college game, it’s not checking, but it’s close – there’s contact and bodies are hitting the boards.” 

Some try to cover up the fact that this rule is sexist by saying that there IS still contact and plenty of physicality, that’s just ridiculous. If girls check they get a penalty it’s as simple as that. Men get called on fist fight ONLY when a player drops to the ice. So tell me one thing? Why are we downgrading the rules for women and slowly bending them for male players? 

What’s Goin’ On Here

“There’s no difference in terms of game play between men and women. The teams use six players at a time while using the same-sized puck on the same-sized hockey rink. But while the game’s played the same by men and women, the opportunities for male and female players are decidedly different.” 

Decided by who and supported by what data? “If I could pinpoint the number one assumption that gets on my nerves every single time I bring up women’s hockey, it’s that no one cares about the women’s game because “the caliber of play is so much lower.”

“This disagreement has popped up every so often in my collective two years of covering the women’s side of the game.”

We all agree that women’s hockey has slightly different rules, different players and a different set of expectations, and somehow, we decide that “different” in this case means “inferior.”

Why? Because look at the men’s side of things! The speed! The HITS! The toughness! The MASCULINITY! 

WoMEN‘s Equality

We make such a big deal out of women’s teams supposedly losing to boys’ teams. We have complained about the perceived lack of physicality, we talk about it as though women are “having a hard time keeping up” with men’s hockey as though that’s the ultimate goal. We talk about how women “could never hack it” in the NHL, whenever someone mentions the idea of female substitutes for NHL players, because “they would get wrecked by a big hit.”

“A return of body checking has not been seriously considered” says The Wall Street Journal. There is a motion in place in efforts to minimize further injury in both the NHL and NFL. 

Photo By: Kariannah

In this day in age women are supposedly equal, then why should sports be any different, this is some women’s dream and career. They deserve to play the same way as men and have the same rules regardless of sexist critics opinions. The fact that they aren’t allowed the same opportunities as men and then get shamed for their “lack of power” is profoundly shameful.

Featured Image By: Kelcieprost