By Jocelyn Orr, Student- St. Olaf University
Edited by Dr. Lynn Jamieson & Dr. Thomas Orr
Women's hockey has been around since the late 1800s. The first documented organized women's hockey game was played in 1889 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Canada. Up until World War II women were allowed to compete for the Eastern and Western Canada titles. During this time period people would pay to watch these women's teams, most famously the Preston Rivulettes, who have the all-time best ratio in men’s or women’s hockey history with 348 wins and only 2 losses (1). Despite successes of this league, women were criticized by the media saying their bodies were “too delicate” or that the chest protector would cause “flat chests.” (12) Body checking was originally banned in a misguided attempt to protect women’s frail bodies and considered unwomanly enabling females to not learn checking(19). In the early times of women’s hockey, it was believed that if a woman was hit hard her uterus could dislodge from her body (19) After and during WW2 women’s sports declined significantly due to the push to keep them in the kitchen. This sent the trajectory of women’s hockey on a decline until the late 1900s. It wasn't until 1998 that women's hockey was approved to be an Olympic sport (2). There are few differences between men’s and women’s hockey; however, the largest difference is the disallowance of body checking (2).
The official ruling of body checking at the Olympic and collegiate level defines, “Body checking is not permitted in any area of the ice. Body checking occurs when a player attempts to gain possession of the puck by separating the puck carrier with a distinct and definable moment of impact using overt(blatant) hip, shoulder, arm, or torso action,” A penalty whether minor, major, or a disqualification is left to the discretion of the referee. Women are supposed to evoke a skill called angling instead of checking (3, pg.88). Which has the same goals as body checking, even with the expectation to make contact with the opponent (4). In 1990 the first world championships checking was allowed within a few games it was removed (2) Cammi Granato, a former US Olympian recalls the checking being successful as checking was allowed for the first few games, “We were psyched, then we faced some of the European teams and said wow these guys are strong and know how to hit. There were a couple head injuries and right away they took it out. It was kind of trial and error, and they took it out entirely (18). While other countries have not yet caught up to USA and Canada on an Olympic level they have improved as programs and can dish out some competitive games. Zuzana Tomcikova, a Slovak goalie who lost 18-0 to Canada in the 2010 Olympics says. “It’s gotten a lot better where other countries are giving the U.S. and Canada a hard game, but I don't think we can say that they’re not the favorites, Europe is coming. It’s getting there, and, if you look at it one way, slowly because it’s going to take years until other countries are going to be able to compete with the U.S. and Canada (5). This quote demonstrates that women's hockey is a growing game with many elite and capable players. Body Checking should be allowed in women's hockey as without it there is other illegal play, increases viewership, and could decrease risk of concussions.
Many critics argue that checking is responsible for the violence that plagues men's hockey (12). And that with a lack of checking women are allowed to play more skillfully (11). However, the no checking rule opens the playing field for other severe dirty plays. It is argued as long as these sanctions are in place that introducing body checking will not lead to an increased incidence of other undesirable features of men's hockey (18). Instead without checking it is shown there is more illegal stick work (12) Checking is an aggressiveness and a technique. It’s a technique you can showcase, and you’ve learned to complete. Checking is a skill in a hockey player’s toolbox, when it is not available players resort to other tactics to accomplish their goal which could be illegal practices such as hooking or tripping. Some players said there was an inevitable trade off as you've got to slow your opponent down somehow and since you can’t hit them or take a piece of them your last resort is your stick (12). The counter argument that many females in the NWHL (former professional women's program) gave is that checking would take away from the sheer grace of the game and that the talent and skill is best showcased with its current rules(20). Illegal stick work would still be seen if checking was allowed however it could be reduced, and skill and grace can still be displayed.
A second major concern for most people is that there could be an increase in concussions if checking was allowed. However, we could see a decrease in concussions if women learn how to hit and get hit at a younger age. Currently women’s hockey is a leading sport in concussion rates. As of the 2014-2015 collegiate season the NCAA injury survey determined that women’s hockey has the highest concussion incident rate across all female sports (6) Most frequently in women’s hockey player to player collisions accounts for 50% of all head impacts; and falls to the ice or boards resulting in head impact only accounts for 30% of all head impacts. The differences in rules between males and females does not support why there is an increasing concussion reporting in female players (6). One study specifically found that 44.1% of reported concussions were a result of player-to-player contact. Demonstrating that the checking disallowance in women’s hockey is not doing anything to protect the athletes from concussions (21). In fact, it could be hurting them more as young female hockey players are not taught how to take body contact. Many coaches and players believe the main reason for eliminating body checking is to reduce the risk of injury. However, females believe they are protected by the no checking rule, checking at some point of the game is inevitable (7). Since females aren’t trained on how to take a hit or safely deliver a hit more injuries are likely to occur such as concussions. The person giving the hit might come in with their stick or elbow up or the person taking the hit might try to get further off the boards or straighten up- all the displays are more likely to injure, and early things men's hockey players learn when they are introduced to body contact (10). NCAA head Richard believes the high concussion rate between men’s and women’s hockey is due to the fact there are more high impact collisions that women are not prepared for and when they happen, they are so obvious that the female athletes are checked on right away while in men's hockey the repercussions from a big hit might go unnoticed (8). So, despite the ruling body checking is still happening and since that number is so high this suggests more research to determine why these contacts are so detrimental in concussions (9).
Other females want the physicality and see it as the way to grow the game and that the addition would increase the pace of the game and girls would become stronger and wiser. “I feel like that always kind of has been something people said about the women’s game: ‘Oh, they can’t hit,'” said Montreal forward Jillian Dempsey, a former Harvard captain who was the all-time leading scorer in the Premier Hockey Federation, a PWHL predecessor. “And it’s like, ‘Well, we really do.’ “But now it’s nice that it’s more within the rules to be able to do it,” she said. “It just kind of gives us that freedom to go out there and display the strength and the power that that many players have (22).” Despite checking enabling girls to become stronger that won’t happen right away and due to the physiology difference between men and women there should be an aspect of neck training. Strength training necks to withstand the constant checking just like soccer players building up their knees to prevent ACL tears (10).
Women have been pushing for checking since the early days of women’s hockey and now they can be strong enough to protect themselves. The PWHL in its young age has shown no increase in injuries with the introduction of hitting (21) “The fans like it, too, which helps to kind of build some of that attention,” said Dempsey, who at 5-foot-4 and 135 pounds is more likely to be receiving hits than dishing them out. “I don’t enjoy being on the wrong end of those a few times, but, yeah, it’s a fun aspect of the game that we get to do now (11).” One female hockey player, a member of the 1997 Blades said,” When you're playing a sport, you don't go out there saying, "OK, I'm a woman. OK, I have to play like one." You go out there and you play aggressive, you play your game and that's that, whereas people are trying to give the image that it's just an all-skill game and it's a woman's game kind of thing. Basically, they were saying that you know women don't compare to men. Which is true, when you get to the older ages. I mean there's no NHL caliber women in the game right now and that's fine. Strength factor and everything, I mean people are going to know that no matter what. But you don't have to go around saying that this is a woman's sport, there's no contact, its total skill, and make it sound like it's a nothing sport either. I think that's part of the reason why women's hockey went nowhere for so many years (12). She said this in 1998, now we’ve had a few NHL equivalents that didn’t make it that long and that leads to questions of why.
Many fans say they do not enjoy women's hockey as much because they lack the hard hits men's hockey has (13). Which would contribute to the lack of viewership women's hockey has in general compared to men’s hockey. The women's sports that contain the most viewership are tennis and professional basketball (14). Most recently in sports we’ve seen the Caitlin Clark effect in action. Clark is challenging stereotypes and breaking ground in a male dominated industry. Clark is selling out stadiums and showing she can play with just as much passion and skill as the men (15). Both sports contain no major rule differences between the men and women (16). Which could correlate to the fact that women's hockey is not well supported as there is a major rule difference between genders. We can see a difference with the creation of the PWHL where more checking is allowed to be written into their rules, “The girls say that checking gives them the leeway to show their skills and restores the traditional balance between finesse and physicality familiar to hockey fans everywhere (17).” So far in the first year of the PWHL the crowds have been sold out and attendance records are constantly being broken. Already the league is more successful than the NWHL. A part of this success could be attributed to the addition of body checking. This is the major rule difference between men’s and women’s hockey. Fans love to see big hits from big players. Now that women’s hockey players are showing how skilled they are in a so far successful league (PWHL), viewership might only rise with an increase in physicality.
The times are changing for women in sports across the world. Every year the gap between women’s sports and men’s sports grows a little closer (17). It’s time for hockey to get on the same page and leave the archaic sexist ideals in the past. Introducing body contact in women's sports at a youth level could decrease concussions, reduce illegal stick penalties, and increase viewership and prominence for women’s hockey. In the early stages of the PWHL the introduction of body checking is shown to be a positive thing in terms of more viewership and no increase in injuries. Now that young girls can dream of a future playing professional hockey, they need to be prepared by allowing checking around bantam age to maximize their potential. Women’s hockey has come a long way. Now it’s time to close the gap.
Bibliography:
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Pictures;
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/pwhl/pwhl-physicality-officiating-2024-1.7076009
